by W.J. Moore Photo Vancouver Archive Reference code AM54-S4-3-: PAN N86
“Scope and content [of the complete image which is wider]: Panoramic view showing the start of the False Creek reclamation, the Great Northern Railway Station construction site, the Main Street bascule bridge, Market Hall and Ivanhoe Hotel.”
It is with this image from the summer of 1916, in the midst of World War I when the absence of males of European heritages was conspicuous, that the designs to destroy the inlet and salt marshes became clear. On the left of this image is the beginning of the first rail line, the closest to what is today Terminal Avenue, a few feet from where its terminus would be a year to two years later, at the new train station. In the distance at the far left is the burgeoning Strathcona neighbourhood with a road just above the inlet that would become Venables.
On the far right is the tidal bridge that would eventually become today’s Main Street a block or two south of today’s Terminal Avenue. On the south side of False Creek East, is a rail line services a number of factories and warehouses.
There are already several shacks along inlet in the drier parts of the tidal flats, roughly at today’s Southern and Station Streets, suggesting that in the previous years tidal flooding has been partially controlled.
