Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
tender age of two months: on June 13, 1886, a fire lit by CPR workers to clear brush
rapidly spread out of control. The 'Great Fire,' as it came to be known, took 45 minutes
to destroy Vancouver's 1000 wooden structures, killing as many as 28 people (the num-
ber remains disputed) and leaving 3000 homeless.
Within hours, reconstruction was underway. But this time the buildings were fash-
ioned from stone and brick. A few months later, on May 23, 1887, Locomotive 374
pulled the first transcontinental passenger train into the city and Vancouver was back in
business. Within four years it grew to a population of 13,000, and between 1891 and
1901 the population skyrocketed to more than double that.
Locomotive 374 pulled the first transcontinental passenger train into Vancouver, but
was left to rot on a local beach for decades after its retirement. A long-overdue cam-
paign to restore it culminated in its unveiling in a purpose-built Yaletown home in time
for Expo '86.
Growing Pains
The railway was responsible for shaping much of the city as it exists today, with the
CPR developing several key neighborhoods for new residential developments. During
the first 30 years of the 20th century, the suburbs around the city also grew substan-
tially. When Point Grey and South Vancouver amalgamated with the city in 1929, Van-
couver became Canada's third-largest city - a ranking it retains today.
While the 1930s Great Depression saw the construction of several public works - the
Marine Building, Vancouver City Hall, the third and present Hotel Vancouver and the
Lions Gate Bridge, to name a few - many people were unemployed, as was the case
throughout Canada. This marked a time of large demonstrations, violent riots and pub-
lic discontent.
WWII helped to pull Vancouver out of the Depression by creating instant jobs at
shipyards, aircraft-parts factories and canneries, and in construction with the building
of rental units for the increased workforce. Japanese Canadians didn't fare so well. In
1942, following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, they were shipped to internment camps
and had to endure the confiscation of their land and property, much of which was never
returned.
Chinese, Japanese and First Nations people were finally given the provincial vote in
1949.
