Langley's Lou Lessard was working on the Second Narrows Bridge when it collapsed during construction on June 17, 1958. On Monday he attended the 66th annual memorial to the 19 people who died
Lou Lessard is the last surviving ironworker who was there when the Second Narrows Bridge collapsed during construction on June 17, 1958.
In a 2019 interview with the Langley Advance Times, Lessard, 90 at the time, told about his experience. Just before 3 p.m., in his capacity as the front end foreman, he gave the order for his team of 10 men to unload 55 ton of steel that needed to be moved from a train car to position on the bridge deck.
“I was lucky. I was at the edge of the bridge, I fell free from the wreckage. Otherwise, I would have been dead, too,” Lessard shared. They hoisted him on a stretcher, loaded him in the back of their pickup truck, and raced him to the Lions Gate Hospital.
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