As mentioned in the History section, Buntzen Lake’s history as a hydroelectric reservoir dates back to 1903.  The following photos I found online from the City of Vancouver Archives.

Below is a photo of Buntzen Lake near the present North Beach and Suspension Bridge…

Below is a photo of a large tree being cut down. Note, the springboards used to stand on while the men saw through the tree. Walking around the Lake today, you can still see many large stumps with the springboard notches.

The tunnel at the north end of the Lake was an engineering feat. The image below shows tunnel construction…

Thousands of workers worked on the tunnel project and a mini town was built on what is now the North Beach of Buntzen Lake. Below are some photos of the tunnel camp…

The area around north beach was recently (May 2014) scanned for artifacts by someone and the artifacts were on display on the memorial. I think this is very cool. Below is a photo of the artifacts…

Large Penstocks, some still seen today, were used to carry water long distances. Below is an old photo of Penstock construction…

The Buntzen Lake Suspension Bridge is located in a 250 m long canal between Buntzen Lake and McCombe Lake.  See the location HERE.  If you are walking clockwise (west side of lake first) around the lake, you have completed about 60% of the full lake loop when you reach this location.

The 50 m long suspension bridge was constructed by: C.F.S.M.E. – QL3-9105 (F) Field Engineer, CFB Chilliwack and designed by Siefken Engineering.  It officially opened 5 June 1992.

A sign on the bridge states ‘maximum 4 people on bridge at one time’ That seems a little overly cautious. I’ve seen between 10 and 15 people on the bridge. The photos below show a suspension bridge bolt and cable and next below, the west anchors.

I’ve seen many dogs walk trepidly across the bridge due to its shaking. Its kind of funny to see a dog stop in its tracks or head back !!

Below is a photo of me on the bridge…

And below is a view looking south down Buntzen Lake on fine sunny day…

Below is one more view of the suspension bridge…

Buntzen Lake is situated between Eagle Mountain to the east and Buntzen Ridge to the west.  The area receives up to 4,000 mm (13 feet) of precipitation annually and Eagle Mountain can accumulate a significant snowpack over the winter months.  There are numerous creeks to bring this water into Buntzen Lake. And when you have a creek, you need a bridge !

Below is Trillium Creek, which is the longest wooden bridge on the trail…

The naming of the creeks around Buntzen Lake is alphabetical (if going in a counter-clockwise direction), but not all letters are represented. Also, there are signs on each bridge stating the maximum number of people is 4 (seems a little overly cautious).

The bridge over the largest creek (which is Buntzen Creek) is not named.

The named bridges are:

And of course, we cannot forget the suspension bridge at the north end of the lake.

There used to be a floating bridge across the far south end of the lake as seen below. This photo is from 2005…

But now it’s mostly a land bridge as seen below…

There remains a small floating bridge section as seen below…

Some of the bridges are new and have steel girders, like the one below…

And some bridges are old and are made entirely of wood, like the one below…

I don’t know if I can call the next one a bridge, but its like a bridge. This is on the Diez Vistas Trail…

The next bridge is a log bridge and it’s also on the Diez Vistas Trail…

Here is a very shallow bridge on the Lakeview Trail…

The next photo isn’t really a bridge, but its more like a short land bridge – just something to reinforce the trail…