Seawall (Vancouver)

The seawall in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada is a stone wall that was constructed around the perimeter of Stanley Park to prevent the erosion of the park's foreshore. Colloquially, the term also denotes the pedestrian, bicycle, and rollerblading pathway on the seawall, one which has been extended far outside the boundaries of Stanley Park and which has become one of the most-used features of the park by both locals and tourists. James "Jimmy" Cunningham, a master mason, dedicated his life to the construction of the seawall from 1931 until his retirement. Even after he retired, Cunningham continued to return to monitor the wall's progress, until his death at 85. While the whole path is not built upon the seawall; the total distance from CRAB park, around Stanley Park and False Creek to Spanish Banks is about 30km.

Despite perennial conflicts between pedestrians, cyclists, and inline skaters, park users consider the seawall to be the most important feature of Stanley Park and it is the most used facility within the park.

The original idea for the seawall is attributed to park board superintendent, W. S. Rawlings, who conveyed his vision in 1918:

The proposal was made to the federal government that it should help finance seawall construction because it owned the park and only leased the land to the city. It was argued that the waves created by ships passing through the First Narrows were eroding the area between Prospect Point and Brockton Point. On this basis, the federal government helped pay for the wall only until 1967 because the portions of the park vulnerable to erosion were now protected.

Most of the Stanley Park portion of the wall was built between 1917 and 1971, although the park portion was not completed until 1980. Much of the original wall was constructed under the direction of James "Jimmy" Cunningham, a master stonemason who spent 32 years on the project until his death. Cunningham continued supervising construction into his last days despite being ill, and on at least one occasion, went to check the seawall's progress still wearing pajamas. He died on 29 September 1963, long before the wall was finished, but remains the one most associated with the project, and a commemorative plaque can be found near Siwash Rock, also where his ashes were scattered. In contrast to the continuity during Cunningham's oversight of the project, construction of the seawall was intermittent, owing to the short-term funding commitments of the civic and federal governments. The first 4,000 feet was completed between 1914 and 1916. A series of storms threatened the foreshore near Second Beach during the war, when water flooded the patch of land between the beach and Lost Lagoon. In 1920, the wall served as a workfare project for 2,300 unemployed men (the largest number of workers at any one time), and by 1939, 8,000 more feet of the wall was finished. Another 9,100 feet was built between 1950 and 1957, and the final 2,500 feet was not taken on until 1968. On 26 September 1971, the last block, completing the original vision of the seawall, was tapped into place by H. H. Stevens, who also helped initiate the project in 1914 as a Member of Parliament for Vancouver. Others that laboured on the wall included unemployed relief workers again during the Great Depression and seamen from HMCS Discovery on Deadman's Island facing punishment detail in the 1950s. Also in that decade, stone sets from the recently dismantled BC Electric Railway streetcar system were incorporated into the seawall. The original Stanley Park section of the 22 km Vancouver Seawall is approximately 9 km from Coal Harbour / Vancouver Rowing Club to Second Beach.

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Wikipedia