Lions Gate Bridge
A 1938 suspension bridge where the centre lane physically reverses direction every day — and ocean ships still pass 61 metres beneath your feet.
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Linked to the Guinness family's North Shore land investment — engineer Taylor persuaded Walter Guinness to invest in the area, making the project viable — this National Historic Site (designated 2005) stretches 473 metres across Burrard Inlet's first narrows. The south anchor sits at Prospect Point in Stanley Park; look north and the twin Lions peaks — the mountains that give the bridge its name — appear exactly where northbound traffic is headed.
What to look for
- The pair of cast concrete lions by sculptor Charles Marega, placed at the south approach in January 1939
- The centre lane's overhead signals, which flip direction to absorb 60,000–70,000 vehicles a day
- The 111-metre towers rising above the water, framing the Lions peaks beyond
The south approach begins at Prospect Point in Stanley Park; the bridge carries Highways 99 and 1A, so expect heavy through-traffic.
Lions Gate Bridge is one of 13 sights worth the detour in Vancouver, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Vancouver pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Vancouver
- BC PlaceA stadium that broke the same world record twice — first with the largest air-supported roof ever built, then with the largest cable-supported retractable roof.
- Rogers ArenaBuilt for C$160 million and opened in 1995, this is the rink where Vancouver's hockey soul lives — and where the city briefly renamed it Canada Hockey Place for the 2010 Winter Olympics.
- Stanley ParkA thousand acres of old-growth forest on a downtown peninsula — bigger than Central Park, as old as Vancouver itself.
- Pacific ColiseumThe rink where Vancouver first played NHL hockey — and where 2010 Olympic skaters competed on the same ice.
- Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports CentreCanada's first national hockey team was born on this ice in 1963 — and the Vancouver Canucks still practice here.
- Richmond Olympic OvalThe rink where Olympic speed skaters raced in 2010 is now a public arena where you can climb a wall, row a tank, or lace up hockey skates — all under one roof.