For 88 years, the 1.2-kilometre Pattullo Bridge has been the orange-arched backbone of our skyline – a steady, humming connection between New Westminster and Surrey. On Feb. 6, 2026, it finally closed to vehicle traffic as commuters got ready to move to the new crossing.

But you don’t stand over the Fraser River for nearly a century without becoming part of the family.

When the Pattullo opened on Nov. 15, 1937, it was a marvel of the modern era. It was built to replace the old, combined road-and-rail bridge, and at a cost of $4 million, it was the gateway that truly tied the South of the Fraser to the rest of the region. Since then, it’s estimated that over a billion trips have been made across those four narrow lanes.

But those billion trips represent much more than just traffic flow. They were a billion times we crossed the water to see a friend, to make it home for dinner, or to reach the places where our biggest life milestones were waiting for us.

The Pattullo was the bridge that carried us home from the Royal Columbian Hospital with a newborn in the back seat. It was the backdrop for countless first days of school, and the route to that high-stakes job interview in the city.

Built in the 1930s for vehicles that were much smaller than those today, the bridge developed a reputation for keeping drivers on their toes. Those narrow lanes didn’t leave much room for error — or mirrors — but it was a bridge with character. In between the focused steering and the tight S-curve, it still managed to offer some of the best views in the region. If you timed your drive just right, you’d catch the sunrise hitting the Port Mann Bridge to the east, or a summer sunset painting SkyTrain’s cable-stayed SkyBridge to the west.

Over the years, we’ve watched the landscape change from those lanes. We saw the riverfront of New Westminster transform into a bustling hub and watched as Surrey grew into a place that opened its arms to thousands of newcomers from around the world. The Pattullo even had a front-row seat to the birth of modern transit in our region as SkyTrain expanded across the Fraser River in the mid-80s. The old bridge watched from just a few metres away as the slender pylons of the SkyBridge began to rise from the riverbed. It stood by as the first SkyTrain cars hummed across the water in 1989, welcoming a new partner to the task of moving Metro Vancouver.

Through all that growth and innovation, the Pattullo stayed the same.

It wasn’t always an easy relationship. We’ve all spent time sitting in the crawl of congestion, cursing traffic (wishing we were on the neighbouring SkyBridge as transit commuters whizzed by). It was the way we got to grandma’s house for Sunday dinner or the way we reached the beach on a Saturday morning.

For one final weekend, Metro Vancouverites from near and far gave the old bridge the send-off it deserved. The engines fell silent and the bridge belonged entirely to the people. Thousands of residents from across the region gathered to walk the span one last time. It was a beautiful, chaotic parade of neighbours — bikes, scooters, dogs — so many dogs, and even a few horses — all crossing at a pace that allowed us to finally stop and say thank you.

The air was filled with laughter and the sound of people reminiscing as they snapped final photos against the orange steel. Perhaps most moving was seeing people leave their mark on the bridge itself. Armed with markers and memories, visitors signed their names, scribbled heartfelt thank yous, and shared brief stories of the decades they spent crossing these lanes. It was a final, personal connection to a structure that had carried so many for so long.

Thank you, Pattullo, for the nearly 100 years of service. You stayed on the job for decades longer than anyone ever intended, standing firm as a workhorse for a region that grew much faster than the engineers of 1937 could have imagined. Thank you for holding us up through the storms, for being the first landmark we looked for on the flight home, and for connecting our communities back when we were just starting to grow.

For the 77,500 vehicles that used the Pattullo every year, the stal̕əw̓asəm Bridge is a wider and safer four-lane crossing with separated paths for walking and cycling. We’re moving on to something new, but we’re taking nearly nine decades of memories with us across the river.