I wanted to add a little explanatory text under TheBalconyCam page which I just set up this week. Feeling lazy, I thought about simply copying the previous dozen-year-old information from an Internet webcam I had in the late 1990's. I wanted to tell where my new camera is and a little bit about my city of New Westminster.
I discovered that the new camera software only provides for very crude webpage design. Therefore, I re-wrote just the introduction, as the old camera pointed downriver in the other direction. I found that there really was not adequate room for the history of New Westminster, so I just pasted that old text here today.
Historical Overview:
Western Canada's province of British Columbia started right at this location more than 150 years ago.It began with a population explosion. In a single year, 1858, more than twenty thousand men came through this area on their way to gold mines. The term Gold Rush was pretty accurate! The Hudson Bay Company was overwhelmed in trying to keep law and order. This concerned the British Government too. So, the Hudson Bay Company's charter to British Columbia was rescinded and the land became a British Colony.
Colonel Richard Moody and a corps of Royal Engineers were quickly sent to build a new capital. Colonel Moody chose a location on high ground next to the Fraser River, right before the river branches into the north and south arms.
There was a dispute as to what to call the new capital. An appeal was sent to Queen Victoria and she named it after her favourite part of London. New Westminster is still known as the "Royal City" because of this.
The city was founded to oversee the hordes of new immigrants and to prevent the area from becoming a territory of the United States. In 1866, New Westminster briefly kept its title when the British Colonies of Vancouver and Victoria were united.
However, Victoria was made capital in 1868. (Mentioning this historical fact to a local is sometimes enough to initiate a bit of displeasure right to this day!)