Since 1937, the massive orange truss of the Pattullo Bridge defined the eastern view from downtown New Westminster. A replacement had been endlessly debated ever since our arrival thirty years ago, dragging through decades of provincial hand-wringing until the new stal̕əw̓asəm Bridge finally opened earlier this year. The venerable steel arch is officially down, leaving the concrete towers of the stal̕əw̓asəm and the SkyTrain bridges to dominate the river alone.
Under a crisp, cloudless October sky, Jayantha and I boarded the SkyTrain toward Scott Road to inspect the resulting vacancy in our skyline. Crews engineered a neat solution by cutting the central arch in two, securing each half across a pair of lashed-together barges. From the train, we watched the floating assembly sit out mid-river before tugs eased the massive rust-coloured structure against the Surrey bank. It now sits directly across the river from us, patiently awaiting the scrapyard shears.
Driving across that span always felt like an aggressive video game; one simply held the wheel steady and prayed whenever a heavy truck drifted into the adjoining lane. Nobody will mourn the sheer terror of that commute, but staring across the Fraser River without that tangled orange silhouette feels surprisingly disorienting. The water is quieter, safer, and noticeably emptier tonight, though getting used to such a tidy horizon will take some time.
