April 2001 West Vancouver Historical Society Page 3 The Capjiano Flood By: Peter Hall Regarding the Capilano Flood and bridge washout mentioned in the February newsletter. The following is an extract from the book "Whistle Up The Inlet" by Gerald A. Rushton. (the story of the Union Steamship Company which served coastal communities for several decades.) "The company performed an unusual connection of another kind when a flash flood washed out a main North Shore bridge, leaving thousands of residents stranded. The Union donated the services of the "Lady Rose" to join other small vessels in ferrying between Vancouver and Dundarave wharf on November 30, 1949. The next day the "Lady Cynthia", under Captain R.T. Naughty, on arriving from Squamish was also pressed into service and carried 425 passengers, who were transferred by smaller craft off West Vancouver." The former West Van Ferries, which had shuttled back and forth between Vancouver and the foot of 14th Street for nearly four decades, had been withdrawn a couple of years earlier. How they were missed! I was going to UBC at the time, and rode back and forth in a car driven by Roy Fletcher. Fortuitously the Fletcher's had more than one car. One was on the west side of the river and the other on the east. In the morning Roy picked us up and drove to the west end of the Capilano Suspension Bridge, which we crossed, and picked up the other car and went off to university. In the evening the procedure was reversed. Ed Note; What luck! Two car families were not as common in the 40's as they are today. For more on the flood see "Your Letters" below. «**«**««* YOUR LETTERS James R. Ehman shares his memories of the 1949 Flood. "The letter of Jeremy Dalton in the February History-Onics jogged my memory bank. 1 too was witness to the events of November 1949 and my remembrance of them is as follows: A combination of an early snowfall, followed by a heavy warm rain raised the level of the Capilano River, noted as the fastest rising recorded river in the world, to full flood, resulting in the western approach to the then single span (now the eastern one of the pair) being completely washed out. The flood waters as quickly dropped and the army crew from Chilliwack had a Bailey Bridge in before 9:00 Monday morning. I was the first to cross it on foot and was only a few minutes late for my teaching at West Van High. Later in the same week the same conditions repeated themselves and the river took out the Bailey Bridge, washing the span several hundred feet downstream. The original West Vancouver ferries then stepped in and established foot passenger service to Vancouver but vehicular traffic was of course stopped. / was living in North Vancouver at the time and used this route only once, finding it quicker to sneak over the barricaded old Keith Road Bridge and then to use the #5 streetcar on the other side to get home. The authorities brought in what seemed to be a crew of loggers who, with no apparent engineering study of any kind, crossed the river with a road starting at the end of Clyde Avenue, dropping down to the gravel bed, then down (Contd. top of next column) (Contd. from last column) a small island and east across a log and plank bridge to rise up on the east side just north of the present Marine Drive roadway. I think this took less than a week and iomehow lasted until a new footing was poured on the west bank and a new section of bridge was erected. If my memory is correct the western span was stolen from another project up the Fraser River, Hope I think. It happened to be the right length for the job but otherwise had nothing in common with the older span to the east. Amazingly while all this was going on a stretch of cold weather held the river level very low. I cannot recall how long it took to get things back to normal but I never missed a day's teaching. It is interesting to compare this event with the present redecking of the Lions Gate Bridge which took 6 million dollars and 1-1/2 years to build. So far they have taken over 80 million dollars and one year and have not yet passed the first tower. Where is the army, or better still, where are those loggers? Looking to the future it is fascinating to guess what might occur if the gravel bank to the east of Cleveland Dam should collapse and Capilano Lake is let loose down the present watercourse. My own guess is that massive damage will occur from Park Royal to Staples, with flood water spreading from Ambleside Park to Pemberton Avenue. Best they get on with the remedial work at the dam!" I wonder if your pupils had looked forward to having a holiday during the floods, James! Your tenacity in always getting to school must have disappointed them! Thank you for your letter. Were we more efficient in the last century? 4c)|c4e)|e4t4ci|c3|c4c (See page 5 for more of Your Letters)