These are rare photos from 1972 of the Knight Street bridge under construction. The bridge was built between 1969 and 1974, to replace the aging and deteriorating Fraser Street Bridge, which connected Fraser Street to No. 5 Road in Richmond. The Fraser Street Bridge was constantly breaking down and became too expensive to maintain.

The Knight Street Bridge began construction in 1969 and was completed and opened on January 15, 1974. During the planning stages, it was originally going to be named as the Fraser Street Bridge Replacement. The bridge was named after Robert Knight, a property owner in South Vancouver in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Construction of the Knight Street Bridge took five years, costing about $15 million ($120M in today’s dollars with inflation) including the approaches.

Write up courtesy of R Johal, Facebook South Vancouver Changes
Photo’s courtesy of Flickr Heritage Vancouver Society
*These photos have been colorized.