History Post-confederation (1867-)
Tragedy at Second Narrows
The Story of the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge
- Publisher
- Harbour Publishing Co. Ltd.
- Initial publish date
- Sep 2010
- Category
- Post-Confederation (1867-), History
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9781550175301
- Publish Date
- Sep 2010
- List Price
- $22.95
-
Hardback
- ISBN
- 9781550174519
- Publish Date
- Nov 2008
- List Price
- $32.95
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Where to buy it
Recommended Age, Grade, and Reading Levels
- Age: 15
- Grade: 10
Description
Winner of the Lieutenant-Governor Medal
On June 17, 1958, Vancouver experienced the worst industrial accident in its history when the new bridge being built across Burrard Inlet collapsed into the flooding tidal waters of Second Narrows, killing eighteen workers. Photos of the two broken spans tilted into the sea went around the world and provided the city with one of its iconic historical images, still familiar to school children half a century later. The shocking thing was that the bridge was not an old, decrepit structure, but a new one just in the midst of being erected with all the support and security modern engineering could provide. That somebody had made a colossal error seemed obvious, but it would take a Royal Commission to discover how and why. Even then, some mysteries will never be solved.
Tragedy at Second Narrows unravels one of Vancouver's great mysteries with all the appeal of a gripping detective novel. Eric Jamieson has returned to the scene of the tragedy and reconstructed the tragic event with scrupulous care, introducing the entire cast of politicians, construction bosses, engineers and ironworkers; he relives those terrifying moments when the structure began to crack and drop like the bottom was falling out of the world. In the end, readers will have learned about the fascinating world of big-time bridge building and will be left with a searingly clear picture of precisely how a great disaster took shape and plunged to its inevitable conclusion.
About the author
Eric Jamieson is a retired career banker who took up writing outdoor and history articles for newspapers and magazines in his late 20s. He has authored three books: South Pole: 900 Miles on Foot (Horsdal and Schubart, 1996), co-authored with Gareth Wood; Tragedy at Second Narrows: The Story of the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge (Harbour Publishing, 2008); and The Native Voice (Caitlin Press, 2016). He was awarded the Lieutenant Governor’s Medal for History Writing in 2009. He currently resides in North Vancouver with his wife, Joan.
Librarian Reviews
Tragedy at Second Narrows: The Story of the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge
Jamieson recreates a riveting account of the events leading up to and the tragic aftermath of the collapse of the Second Narrows Bridge, that killed eighteen workers on June 17, 1958. He reveals the impetus for erecting the bridge during the 1950s, including the political climate. Eye-witness accounts from the workers, engineers, ironworkers, riveters, erectors and security guards enliven the story. Concluding with an exhaustive scrutiny of the resulting Coroner’s Inquest, the Royal Commission and the Ironworkers Local 97 strike, this important book dispels the myths behind “the worst industrial accident in Vancouver’s history”.Jamieson wrote South Pole: 900 Miles on Foot, winner of the Lieutenant-Governor’s Medal for Historical Writing in 2009.
Source: The Association of Book Publishers of BC. BC Books for BC Schools. 2009-2010.
