Ironworkers Memorial Second Narrows Crossing
Coordinates: 49 ° 17 '45 " N , 123 ° 1' 35" W.
| Ironworkers Memorial Second Narrows Crossing | ||
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| use | Highway bridge | |
| Convicted | Burrard Inlet | |
| Crossing of | Vancouver , North Vancouver | |
| construction | Cantilever truss bridge | |
| overall length | 1,292 meters | |
| Longest span | 335 meters | |
| opening | August 25, 1960 | |
| location | ||
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The Ironworkers Memorial Second Narrows Crossing (dt. About the transition of the second narrow commemorating the iron workers ) is a six-lane highway bridge in the Canadian province of British Columbia . It connects Vancouver with North Vancouver and crosses the Burrard Inlet , at the second narrow point of this fjord .
In terms of design, it is a cantilever bridge with a steel framework , it was designed by the Swan Wooster Engineering Company. The length is 1292 meters, the span of the middle section 335 meters. The span of the bridge is 85.86 meters - 2 × 85.91 meters - 86.08 meters - 142.24 meters - 335.00 meters - 142.09 meters. The Trans-Canada Highway runs across it . Immediately to the east of it is the Second Narrows Bridge , which is now a pure railway bridge.
Construction work began in November 1957. On June 17, 1958, several bridge arches broke and 79 workers fell 30 meters into the water. Eighteen of them were killed when they were torn down because of their heavy tool belts. Later, a diver who was looking for the bodies also drowned. A commission of inquiry concluded that human error had been the cause of the accident. An engineer who was also one of the fatalities had made a calculation incorrectly and underestimated the weight of the building material. When a construction crane swung around to insert an element, the bridge could no longer hold the extra weight and collapsed.
After the accident, the bridge was completed and opened on August 25, 1960. In 1994 the name was changed in honor of the workers who had died. Folk singer Stompin 'Tom Connors celebrated the event in the song The Bridge Came Tumbling Down on his 1972 album My Stompin' Grounds .