1958:

Nineteen men are killed, and dozens more are injured as two sections of the partially-completed Second Narrows Bridge suddenly collapse during construction, plunging into the icy waters of Burrard Inlet, in what will become known as the deadliest industrial accident in B.C. history.

“At first, it looked like our bridge was falling,” Ben Hallman, a motorist on the old Second Narrows Bridge nearby will recall, “then we saw the two sections crash into the inlet. The air was filled with shouts and cries for help. Fifty men must have gone down with the bridge. They didn’t have a chance. It all happened within a moment- a moment of horror.”

The collapse, which will later be attributed to a faulty calculation on the part of a junior engineer (who himself perishes in the collapse), comes only a year into the construction of the troubled span, which has long been plagued by accidents and closures. A large-scale rescue operation is undertaken by police and pleasure-boat operators in the area, and due to their efforts, a number of injured workers are pulled from the inlet, and taken to hospital. Many others aren’t so lucky, pulled to the bottom by heavy toolbelts, or crushed by falling debris. A Royal Commission will later rule that the collapse was the result of engineer error, with Dominion Bridge (the contracting company, which should have caught the flaw in the design stage) accused of cutting corners in a race to get the project completed.

The span will later be rebuilt, and, when it finally opens in 1960, plaques on either end will commemorate the workers who died on the span.

In 1994, it will be renamed the Ironworkers’ Memorial Bridge.

IMAGE: Rescuers observe the collapsed Second Narrows Bridge, circa 1958. Image Courtesy of the Vancouver Province.