The latest B.C. Road Trip Time Machine video from the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure takes us on a trip down memory lane from Horseshoe Bay to New Westminster in 1966.

The video shows Highway 1, which was only one lane in each direction at the time, before the Upper Levels Highway was built. It features a number of notable landmarks on Georgia Street, including the Christ Church Cathedral, Hotel Georgia and the Hudson’s Bay building. Also visible is the Biltmore Motor Inn, the original Jim Pattison dealership, and many of Kingsway’s famous neon signs.

From boxy station wagons to $0.39-per-gallon gas, this video provides us with a nostalgic snapshot into B.C.’s past, before high-rise buildings filled Vancouver’s downtown core.

Starting in the summer of 1966, the ministry (then called the Highways Department) began a photo log to create a visual record of all 9,000 kilometres of B.C.’s roads, from Fort St. John down to the tip of Vancouver Island.

The photo log was made by rigging a camera to the dash of a car that took still images every 26 metres, which were then put together as a single film. This saved engineers time by allowing them to monitor road conditions without travelling to the site and plan safety improvement projects from their headquarters in Victoria.

Today, the ministry uses a specialized van called an automatic road analyzer, with computers, lasers, GPS and high definition cameras to collect information about our highways and roads.

Click the TranBC links below to read the blog, watch the video and view the photo album.

TranBC Blog: https://www.tranbc.ca/2017/11/01/bc-road-trip-time-machine-see-vancouver-as-it-was-in-1966

TranBC YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6-VqUzRNMA

TranBC Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/tranbc/sets/72157665703075459