The Ministry of Transport has released this gem of a 1966 car trip from Horseshoe Bay to New Westminster. Already garnering over 19,000 views, it is one of a series of YouTube videos the Ministry has released of “drives” around the province undertaken a half century ago.
In 1966 there were 410,000 people in Vancouver. Gasoline was 32 cents a gallon. If you look closely you can see the toll booth at the entrance of the Lions Gate Bridge, and watch the vehicle cross the bridge at a breathless rate. You can marvel at the low scale buildings in the downtown, with a few pedestrians on sidewalks. There are some familiar landmarks like The Bay on Georgia, and a surprising plethora of large format automobile oriented advertising for car related products, gasoline and of course tobacco.
Take a look at the video and post your personal finds in the comments section below.
I would love to view it at the regular speed, and show it to my 83 year old mother in law who came to Canada in 1967. So many landmarks on this trip, thanks for sharing.
If you watch it on Youtube (https://youtu.be/G6-VqUzRNMA) you can go into the settings (gear in bottom right of the screen or three vertical dots in top right) and slow the speed to 0.5X or 0.25X.
Thanks Kevin, my mother in law lived in Cedar Cottage for forty years and will have fond memories of the businesses on Kingsway.
Horseshoe Bay to New West in 3.5 minutes! Traffic has gotten worse. I take it all back.
The road from Horseshoe Bay isn’t as I remember it in many places, likely due to upgrades after 1966. Only one toll booth at the north end of the Lions Gate Bridge, not the whole bank of them. Lots of light coming through the trees along the causeway, perhaps the result of the big storm earlier. Georgia is familiar, and it is interesting to see the previous Georgia Viaduct. Banners on the lamp posts appear to have the 1967 Confederation logo.
Kingsway has changed very little.
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