First Narrows (Vancouver) facts for kids

Prior to the dredging, shallow sandbanks extended far from the north shore.

First Narrows forms the western mouth of Vancouver's inner harbour.

First Narrows is a special waterway in Vancouver, British Columbia. It's like the main entrance to Vancouver's inner harbour. This narrow passage connects the busy harbour to the wider ocean.

Making the Channel Deeper

For large ships to easily enter and leave Vancouver's harbour, the First Narrows needed to be much deeper. This process is called dredging. It means digging up the bottom of a waterway to make it deeper.

The Mighty DGS Mastodon

In 1909, a special ship called the DGS Mastodon was ordered from a shipyard in Scotland. This powerful ship was designed to do the heavy work of dredging. It started its important job in 1911.

From 1912 to 1917, the crew of the DGS Mastodon worked tirelessly. They worked 24 hours a day, six days a week! Their mission was to dig out the channel and make it deep enough for big ocean ships. Over these years, they removed an incredible 5 million tons of material from the seabed.

What They Dug Up

The material they dug up was a mix of blue clay, which is a type of sticky soil, and many rocks and boulders. Some of these boulders were huge! They were too big for the dredge's buckets to pick up. So, the crew had to break them into smaller pieces first before they could be removed.

The Famous Lion's Gate Bridge

Later, in the 1940s, a large suspension bridge was built across the First Narrows. This famous bridge is known as the Lion's Gate Bridge. It's built very high above the water. This allows even the tallest ocean-going ships to pass safely underneath it as they travel to and from the harbour.