I don’t know how BLAH City comes up with these videos – but this is an amazing find: a 1974 bike ride around Vancouver by hanssipma.
Shot with a Braun Nizo Super 8 camera mounted on a bicycle. The camera had an intervalometer so it automatically shot a frame of film every so many seconds. This is one continuous film, miraculously the film ran out just as I arrived back home.
.
Home appears to be in Grandview, the start and stop, with a loop around Burrard Inlet, bridge to bridge , through Stanley Park and over to the south shore of False Creek. While some aspects of Vancouver don’t appear to have changed all that much (though it would be great to get a comparable video done today), there are some highlights.
Cyclists who don’t remember Lions Gate before it was rebuilt will be shocked to see the sidewalk we rode on back then, as well as the lack of a separated lane on Burrard. There’s also a quick shot of the old Englesea Lodge on English Bay before it burned, and a detour up to the Burrard Bridge given that the seawall went no further.
Most significantly, you’ll see the South Shore of False Creek under construction, with the seawall completed but not much else. Also some shots of the great industrial buildings where the Olympic Village is now. And a general absence of trees. The city looks relatively barren compared to the lushness that has filled in the streets in the last 38 years.
But that’s though my eyes. Anything else you notice, please add to Comments.
Sunset Beach is a giant parking lot (2:40).
Great video. Vancouver looked like a dangerous place to ride a bike in the 70’s. The 2nd narrows bridge also shows not safety railing between sidewalk and traffic. I used to ride from Upper Lonsdale to Ambleside or Stanley Park or to downtown and back. Only got car doored once miraculously. Good thing to remember on Bike to Work Week 38 years later.
73 cents per (Imperial) Gallon of (leaded) gasoline. Weee!
great video….interesting to compare to present. We used to climb over the rocks around Englesea lodge as kids.
Happily, Hans Sipma, the creator of this film, recently donated his original Super 8 footage to the City of Vancouver Archives where we’ll be able to preserve it for generations to come. In 2010 he also donated a wonderful film he made in 1981 that documents a street protest against the local showing of the film Caligula: http://searcharchives.vancouver.ca/protest;rad
There’s a slow version posted now if you want to see more details. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VslCYTZdfHg
Before Lions’ Gate was rebuilt to allow cyclists to ride safely, I had heard of cyclist who had incredibly jumped with his bike on the sidewalk bridge when another cyclist ahead of him fell onto the sidewalk. He had safely bike-jumped over the fallen cyclist and his bike.
Great post.
The Main & Terminal McDonald’s was there even in 1974.
The old sidewalk was indeed crazy and there are many accident and near miss stories. What amazed me is that the sidewalk itself was only about 3/8″ thick. It was concrete poured into a metal grid and underneath was just air. They knocked out some of the concrete rectangles at one point in the 90’s and you could just see the sea below. Having said that I don’t think the approaches to the Ironworkers bridge are much better today!
I was amused that the McDonalds just south of Quebec/Main and Terminal was already there. You’re right Gordon that the city was amazingly barren in 1974. It all looks pretty gritty and Fred Herzog actually.
Graham and I figure that this must have been shot in 1975 rather than 1974?? Just remembering that these places in False Creek were still finishing constuction in 1976, (before we moved here in 1978), or else they just tooktheir time inbuilding in those days.
Author
I think the radio clips were from 1975 as well
Gord
Sent from my iPad
My wife and I recreated this video a few weeks ago. Hope you enjoy it!
http://www.bikeroute.ca/2012/07/12/a-bike-ride-through-vancouver-2012-edition/