, , , , ,

Taylor Made

, , , , ,

Lions Gate Bridge, once described as a bridge to nowhere, is one of three vital links across Burrard Inlet connecting the North Shore and Vancouver. We’d be stuck without it, and some days we are stuck by it when it turns into a car-strangled spanner.

Lions Gate Bridge, 1939, Published by the Sun Publishing Co. Courtesy, North Vancouver Archives, MONOVA, Inventory Number 1939–5.

Lions Gate Bridge was built to provide a link to the British Properties, a large and ambitious real estate development in West Vancouver. Both the bridge and the development were the enterprising vision of Alfred James Towle Taylor aka Fred Taylor, who is the Taylor of Taylor Way, which is the portal road to his planned upmarket residences. It was a vision that eventually became a reality. His bridge became a bridge to somewhere – the British Properties and the North Shore.

7th Street, now Taylor Way, looking north from Marine Drive. The area is being cleared and slash burned - 1936. Courtesy of West Vancouver Archives, IN -  36.001.WVA.BPP  

1940s Photograph of the boulevard entrance to the Capilano Estates on Taylor Way, looking north from Mathers Avenue. Courtesy of West Vancouver Archives, IN - 2150.02.950.DWV  

Portrait of A.J.T. Taylor, 1939. Courtesy, North Vancouver Archives, MONOVA, Inventory Number 13287

On Monday 14th November, 1938, cars first drove across the spans of the longest suspension bridge in the then British Empire. Start-to-finish construction of the bridge took 18 months, beginning on the last day of March 1937. When completed, the main span measured 1552 feet with a ship’s clearance of 200 feet. The price tag was CA$5,873,837. The wealthy Irish Guinness family had agreed to finance the bridge and the Capilano Estates that we know as the British Properties.

1938 image looks North across Lions Gate Bridge, showing its two lanes. Two cars can be seen, and pedestrians on the east sidewalk. Streetlights with decorative finials are installed. Courtesy, North Vancouver Archives, MONOVA, Inventory Number 5303

1938 Toll booths and automobiles at north end of Lions Gate Bridge. Courtesy, North Vancouver Archives, MONOVA, Inventory Number 7565

Cars had been crossing the two-lane toll bridge for six months before the official opening took place. King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, on their Canadian tour, “honoured” the new bridge by being driven across it, having declined all requests for a stop to take part in an actual opening ceremony. However, they did stop briefly for refreshments at the British Properties Company Cottage at Eyremont Drive, named after Fred’s associate and banker, William Stephen Eyre.

29th May 1939, King VI and Queen on Eyremont Drive, Courtesy of West Vancouver Archives, IN-028.13.2.039.11

Royal Motorcade crossing the Lions Gate Bridge during the May 1939 visit of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. Courtesy City of Vancouver Archives, Item: 6-104

1939 photograph of the British Pacific Properties' Company Cottage, originally located on Crestline Drive. The cottage was designed by Palmer and Bow, and acted as a sales office and entertainment centre until the Capilano Golf and Country Clubhouse was built. Courtesy, North Vancouver Archives, MONOVA, Inventory Number 008.WVA.CON

The Royal crossing took place on Monday, May 29th, 1939, the date that Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia and three months before WWII was declared. Among the crowds who had gathered to glimpse the first reigning monarch to set foot in Canada stood Fred Taylor. Three days earlier, at the official bridge opening ceremony on Friday, 26th May, 1939, Fred had been recognized for his achievements as the engineer and entrepreneur responsible for the creation and development of the bridge and the massive real estate venture.

A.J.T. Taylor, President and Engineer-in-Chief, British Pacific Properties Ltd.; with a group at the Capilano Estates – 1936. Courtesy West Vancouver Archives, IN - 2470.WVA.RAH

Unaccountably, directly after the ceremony, he resigned from his position with The First Narrows Bridge Company. Today, Taylor Way is the only recognizable tribute to Fred. Surprisingly, his 1887 baby shoes are embedded in one of the two crouched lions at the south end of the bridge. Following his death in 1945, his ashes were scattered over the inlet waters that run below the bridge.

A bridge at First Narrows had been proposed and opposed for decades. It had taken Fred Taylor’s vision, determination, and his drive to make it happen. But it also took a number of other circumstances to align. 

Fred Taylor’s Journey.

Born in Victoria in 1887, Fred became a man with a thirst for wealth and success who led an entrepreneur’s rollercoaster of gaining and losing wealth and valuable connections, both in Canada and England. His childhood must have been challenging. He was the eldest of four children born to two loving parents, but his mother died in childbirth and his father. a scientist, had to make a living to keep a roof over their heads and was often away.

At age 9, in Victoria, Fred looked after his siblings and ran the household. Unable to keep up with schoolwork, he failed his English exam at age 14, a failure that led him to leave school, followed by instructive apprenticeships that would serve him well. He eventually lived in a shack in Vancouver close to the Terminal City Club in Vancouver; the club that later would become an important networking element in his life and also led, through a connection he met there, to meeting and marrying Scottish (Kathleen) Mona Young. The shack was also close to where Vancouver’s iconic Marine Building would be built and which he would later own for a period of time, enjoying panoramic views from his penthouse apartment.

One can only wonder what drove Fred Taylor from his difficult childhood, filled with loss and a curtailed formal education, to seek the successes he sought as a young man. Step by step, he climbed the social and financial ladder, making money and valuable contacts along the way in both Canada and England. For a while, he lived in a prestigious area of London as he worked to attract investors for his dream project in Vancouver; the circles he moved in led to his Scottish wife, Mona, being presented at the Royal Court. But Fred was not a centre stage character. He preferred doing, rather than basking in the limelight. As a young man, he recognized that in order to succeed, he had to chase the money in a rich man’s world.

Meeting the Moneyed:

William Stephen Eyre was a retired English banker who, with Fred, formed British Pacific Securities in 1928. Eyre had deep pockets, but not deep enough to finance the massive project Fred had in mind. They met in London where Fred also met the influential Lord Southborough, winning his long-time support. It was Lord Southborough who introduced Fred’s plans to the wealthy Guinness Family brothers Rupert, the second Earl of Iveagh, Arthur Edward, and Walter Edward, the first Lord Moyne. This eventually led to the Guinness family providing substantial financing for the Lions Gate Bridge and the Capilano Estates (British Properties). The plans for Capilano Estates included an exclusive golf club to attract wealthy home buyers with healthy bank accounts. Fred hired Stanley Thompson, an internationally renowned Canadian golf course architect, to create a course par excellence.

Fred needed financial backing to succeed, but he also needed a right-hand man to achieve success. That man was John Anderson, Secretary Treasurer and Director of British Pacific Properties and the First Narrows Bridge Company. He worked shoulder-to-shoulder with Fred through all of the challenging years and tendered his resignation on the same day as Fred.

Aside from affluent, influential and useful contacts, the project also needed various governments’ approval, Vancouver plebiscite approval, cheap land, cheap labour and substantial financial backing.

Taxes and Investment:

Fred Taylor was not the only speculator to dream up the development of land in West Vancouver based on the prospect of a proposed bridge. It had been going on through years of opposition to the point that earlier speculators, who had pre-empted land in West Vancouver, walked away from their investment and the taxes they owed to West Vancouver. For West Vancouver to recoup the tax losses, they had to sell off land at bargain basement prices. And Fred Taylor saw the opportunity to acquire that land to make his ambitious real estate development dream become a reality. What he had to have to make it happen was lots of money which is why he sought capital investment from the world financial centre of London.

Wealthy Brits sought to mitigate taxation and to increase their investment portfolios. To that end, there were those who shopped around for investment opportunities. While there was interest in Fred’s project, there was also hesitation. Vancouver was a long way away, and some saw it as a risky financial frontier on the edge of the Pacific Ocean. And then, there was the question of the bridge, whose construction had been resisted for decades. Of course, the bridge was vital to the success of the proposed West Vancouver real estate development. Unless the Bridge could be assured, money remained hard to come by.

Bridging the hesitation gap:

As well as investment money, Fred needed to have all levels of government - Federal, Provincial, Municipal - on his side and on side with each other. It’s easy to imagine what a tangle that became over the years. The influential C.P.R. put forward concerns to governments about the bridge straddling the waters that served as the shipping channel for their ships from Vancouver’s downtown steamship terminal to Vancouver Island.

Circa 1939 postcard of ship passing under LG Bridge. Courtesy, North Vancouver Archives, MONOVA, Inventory Number 16274

But C.P.R. was also invested in the prestigious development of an elite Vancouver neighbourhood named after a C.P.R. president and chair, Lord Shaughnessy. C.P.R. felt that the Shaughnessy area, “might well suffer from the opening up of more residential areas on the North Shore”.

Another large hurdle to overcome was allowing the construction of an access road to the bridge through Stanley Park. Many Vancouverites were completely opposed to this. A 1927 Vancouver plebiscite result kiboshed the bridge construction plan, but in 1933 a second plebiscite saw 70% acceptance. It probably passed because in 1933, citizens felt the need for a reliable and significant car bridge. Motorists had become used to having the 1925 Second Narrows road-rail-foot toll bridge that on September 19th, 1930, collapsed following a ship colliding with the structure, putting it out of use until 1934. The bridge was missed, especially as the popularity of vehicles had increased due to their lower cost. Now in 1933, the prospect of a significant suspension bridge for vehicles and pedestrians at the First Narrows won the day and Fred could move forward to make the entire project happen as the Federal Government and Prime Minister Bennett eventually gave the bridge the go-ahead. With Lord Southborough’s encouragement, the Guinness Family stepped in with the money. “They were early buyers of land in Canada, before it became built-up. Inside sources say that the family saw the rush to property in the United States but instead chose to invest in the "emerging market" at the time in Canada.”

British Pacific Properties continues as a developing presence in West Vancouver with a booth at the recent Harmony Arts Festival promoting their latest development, Cypress Village.

1929 Wall Street Crash; 1930s cheap labour; by-laws; restrictive covenants.

Following the 1929 Wall Street Crash and the loss of personal fortunes, there were British investment jitters, putting a brake on financial backing. The Great Depression of the 1930s followed the crash with mass unemployment, poverty, bread lines and soup kitchens. By 1937, when work began on the construction of the Lions Gate Bridge, manual labour was cheap and plentiful, with little attention given to worksite safety and, while tragically, one life was lost, it remains a miracle that there were not more. But men were grateful for a job in the 1930s depression, and workplace danger mattered less than the loss of a paycheque.

1938 image with labourers at work filling the Tee-grid steel supports with concrete. Courtesy, North Vancouver Archives, MONOVA, Inventory Number 5294

This 1938 image is a close-up showing workers on the catwalk, with the wrapping mechanism used on the cables of the Lions Gate Bridge. Courtesy, North Vancouver Archives, MONOVA, Inventory Number 5296

In October 1937, the payroll stood at 334 men. A 1933 Vancouver by-law required that local material and workers be employed. But it specifically excluded workers who would also have been very grateful for a job, "no Asiatic person shall be employed in or upon any part of the undertaking or other works".  Until recently, restrictive covenants on British Properties Land Titles were similar but more extensive. 

Sidelined:

On the 29 May 1939, when the King and Queen “honoured” the bridge by being driven across it without stopping, among the onlookers, as well as Fred, were members of the First Nations including the Squamish Nation whose lives and land had been irrevocably altered by the bridge. “In 1936, without consultation and little compensation, the Minister of Indian Affairs recommended transfer of lands from Capilano Indian Reserve No. 5 to the First Narrows Bridge Company, pursuant to Section 48 of the Indian Act.”  The First Narrows Bridge Company had been Fred’s company. Centenarian and Matriarch of the Squamish Nation, Mary Agnes Capilano, attired in full regalia, waited with her family to greet the royal couple as they approached the bridge. But the request that they stop to honour her was declined. 

Mathias Joe, Centenarian & Matriarch Mary Agnes Capilano and Chief Mathias Joe and others during the May 1939 visit of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. Courtesy City of Vancouver Archives, Item : 6-108

Fred Taylor himself was also seemingly sidelined. It appears that an undercurrent of mutual dissatisfaction between Fred and the Guinness family developed, even as the bridge and land development projects moved forward. Perhaps that he had irons in other fires was an irritant and possible conflict of financial interests. Fred and Mona had planned to build a home in the new development but were blocked from doing so. So they instead built a magnificent waterfront home on Marine Drive in West Vancouver called Kew House. Years later, Kay Meek would be an owner. But when you don’t build in your own development, the optics present a lack of confidence. That he resigned from the bridge company directly after the official bridge opening indicated he felt it was time to part company and move on and away.

The Lions:

It is hard to imagine the Lions Gate Bridge without the two symbolic crouched lions at the south end of the approach to the bridge. Construction money was ebbing away and to afford them, cast concrete was used rather than bronze or stone, a disappointment for the chosen sculptor Charles Marega, an Italian immigrant and a friend of Fred. Being a friend meant he could oblige Fred his request to embed within a lion not only Fred’s baby shoes but his written account of the struggles and frustrations he navigated to realize his dream of the British Properties and the Lions Gate Bridge. They remain there frustratingly inaccessible.

From 1938 until 1955, there was a commemorative plaque at the south end of the bridge that included Alfred James Towle Taylor as a director in the First Narrows Bridge Company Limited Directorate. But when the bridge was sold in 1955 to the Province of B.C., the plaque was replaced with no mention of Fred. Taylor Way is the only remaining nod to the Canadian entrepreneur who Taylor Made the Lions Gate Bridge.

Aerial View of Lions Gate Bridge & British Properties 1962 – Taylor’s  legacy. Courtesy West Vancouver Archives, IN -  62.026.WVA.BPP

Fun Facts:

  • The most significant technical innovation in the construction of Lions Gate Bridge was the use of prefabricated strands for the suspension cables. Instead of being twisted on site, the cables were made from 47 wires, which, in turn, were twisted into 3,400 long strands. The cables were pre-stretched at the factory and end sockets applied, before they were shipped west. It took only 16 working days to place the 122 completed cables, each one being "tuned" by tapping it with a wrench to determine the final degree of tightening.”  

  • The Lions Gate Bridge was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 2004 because: it is an outstanding landmark and has a significant symbolic value to Canadians.

  • British Properties Street Names associated with Taylor.

    • Anderson Crescent:  John Anderson, his right-hand man.

    • Eyremont Drive:  William S. Eyre, rich, retired British banker, close associate of Taylor for many years who helped to get the Guinness family on board by providing the financial backing.

    • Southborough Drive:  Lord Southborough, possibly the most important contact Taylor made in the 1920’s living in London while seeking financial backing. The Lord was largely responsible in attracting the Guinness Family to provide major financing for Taylor’s British Properties.

    • Rabbit Lane: Fred and his wife, Mona, lived for some time in the exclusive area of Rabbit Lane, Hersham. Surrey. The exclusive area has private road association-managed verges and roads.

Lions Gate Bridge:  Acknowledgments & Sources.

Quotes:

 

Support North Shore Heritage 

Help preserve heritage in our community. Become a member, volunteer or make a donation.