VANCOUVER - British Columbia: Including the Alaska Highway - page 48

powered by a steam system originally put in place to heat buildings along a 10-kilometer-
long underground pipeline that snakes through downtown. Watch for the burst of steam
every 15 minutes, which sets off steam whistles to the tune of Westminster chimes. Contin-
ue east along Water Street to the 1899 Dominion Hotel, then half a block south down Ab-
bott Street to Blood Alley, the hangout of many infamous late-19th-century rogues. Most
buildings still standing along Water Street were built immediately after the Great Fire of
1886, but the Byrnes Block (2 Water St.) is generally regarded as the oldest; it stands on
the site of Deighton House, Gassy Jack's second and more permanent saloon.
Water Street ends at the cobbled Maple Tree Square, at the intersection of Water, Car-
rall, Powell, and Alexander Streets. A bronze statue of Gassy Jack watches over the square
and the site of his original saloon from the top of a whiskey barrel. The Alhambra Hotel,
which occupies the actual saloon site, was built in 1886 from bricks used as ballast in ships
that sailed into Burrard Inlet.
Gastown