Prospect Point, Stanley Park, Vancouver
AA-2026-E8B291
On the image
Someone in Vancouver's parks department decided a lookout needed a name carved into a slab of wood, and so Prospect Point got its sign, mounted at the exact spot where a tourist could read the words and then look up to see the reason for them. Behind the railing the Lions Gate Bridge does the actual work of connecting the city to the North Shore, its towers and cables strung across the First Narrows since 1938, though by this decade it had already stopped being a marvel and settled into being a commute.
The evergreens on either side were planted by nobody and maintained by nobody, which is the whole point of a park inside a rainforest; the city merely fenced off the view and put up a sign confirming that yes, this is the good part. A driver crossing the bridge in the middle distance was almost certainly unaware that a small wooden monument existed to tell strangers where to stand and admire the drive he found tedious twice a day.
The historian's note
Prospect Point is a scenic overlook on the northern tip of Stanley Park in Vancouver, British Columbia, positioned above the First Narrows of Burrard Inlet. The Lions Gate Bridge, visible spanning the water in the background, opened in 1938 as a privately financed suspension bridge connecting downtown Vancouver to the North Shore municipalities, and remains one of the city's principal traffic links.
By the 1960s the overlook was an established stop on the park's tourist circuit, marked with interpretive signage of the kind seen here, identifying the site for visitors arriving by car along the park's perimeter road. The view from this point, framed by old-growth conifers preserved within the park boundary, has changed little in its essential composition since that period.
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Prospect Point Sign with Lions Gate Bridge, Stanley Park, 1960s. 1960–1969. Archive & Atlas, Historical Image Library, AA-2026-E8B291. https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/prospect-point-sign-with-lions-gate-bridge-stanley-park-1960s-e8b291.
@misc{aaAA2026E8B291,
title = {Prospect Point Sign with Lions Gate Bridge, Stanley Park, 1960s},
year = {1960–1969},
howpublished = {Archive \& Atlas, Historical Image Library},
note = {Accession AA-2026-E8B291},
url = {https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/prospect-point-sign-with-lions-gate-bridge-stanley-park-1960s-e8b291}
}TY - ART TI - Prospect Point Sign with Lions Gate Bridge, Stanley Park, 1960s PY - 1960–1969 PB - Archive & Atlas, Historical Image Library AN - AA-2026-E8B291 UR - https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/prospect-point-sign-with-lions-gate-bridge-stanley-park-1960s-e8b291 ER -
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