VANCOUVER - 3D TIMELAPSE - 1792 to 2026

Watch Vancouver grow in a 3D timelapse: from the villages of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh peoples in 1792, through the sawmills, Gastown and the Great Fire of 1886, to a city of about 740,000 people today. Chapters 0:00 1792 · Long before the city 0:15 1808-1859 · Simon Fraser reaches the sea, A colony on the Fraser 0:34 1863 · Sawmills on the inlet 0:45 1867 · Gassy Jack's saloon 0:57 1870 · Granville and Confederation 1:09 1886 · The City of Vancouver 1:21 1886 · The Great Fire 1:34 1887 · Anti-Chinese riot 1:46 1887 · The first train 1:58 1888 · Stanley Park 2:11 1890 · Streetcars and the interurban 2:24 1907 · Anti-Asian riot 2:36 1912 · A boomtown skyline 2:49 1913 · The taking of Sen̓áḵw 3:02 1914 · The Komagata Maru 3:15 1925 · Grain and the Second Narrows 3:28 1929 · One city from three 3:41 1930 · The Marine Building 3:54 1932 · Burrard Bridge 4:07 1935 · Depression on the waterfront 4:19 1936 · A new City Hall 4:31 1938 · Lions Gate and a royal visit 4:45 1942 · Japanese Canadians uprooted 4:58 1954 · The Miracle Mile 5:10 1958 · The bridge collapse 5:23 1962 · Towers in the West End 5:36 1967 · Stopping the freeway 5:49 1977 · The SeaBus 6:02 1983 · BC Place 6:15 1985 · Air India Flight 182 6:27 1986 · Expo 86 6:41 1995 · Towers on False Creek 6:54 2008 · Shangri-La and the Canada Line 7:07 2010 · The 2010 Winter Olympics 7:21 2011 · Stanley Cup riot 7:33 2016 · A public health emergency 7:45 2021 · The heat dome 7:58 2025 · Tragedy at Lapu-Lapu Day 8:10 2026 · Sen̓áḵw rises 8:23 2026 · The World Cup at BC Place Facts • In June 1792 boats from Captain George Vancouver's expedition met Squamish people in canoes in Burrard Inlet, and the Spanish ships Sutil and Mexicana met him off Point Grey. • Hastings Mill began cutting lumber in June 1867, and 'Gassy' Jack Deighton opened his saloon beside it on 30 September 1867: the start of Gastown. • Vancouver was incorporated on 6 April 1886; on 13 June 1886 a clearing fire burned the new city in under half an hour. • The first transcontinental passenger train reached Vancouver on 23 May 1887, pulled by Engine 374. • Stanley Park opened on 27 September 1888; families at Xwayxway and Chaythoos were forced out to build its road. • The Lions Gate Bridge opened on 14 November 1938; its towers stand 111 m above the water of First Narrows. • Expo 86 drew 22.1 million visits between 2 May and 13 October 1986 on the old rail yards of False Creek. • The City of Vancouver counted 662,248 people in the 2021 census; Statistics Canada's estimate for 2025 is 740,454. Sources • City of Vancouver Archives (J. S. Matthews, Early Vancouver); vancouverhistory.ca (Chuck Davis); The Canadian Encyclopedia • Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations (musqueam.bc.ca, squamish.net, twnation.ca); MOA Musqueam teaching kit • Wikipedia: History of Vancouver, Timeline of Vancouver history and the articles on each landmark, bridge and event • Heritage Vancouver; BC Studies (N. MacDonald, The CPR and Vancouver's development to 1900); Georgia Straight • Statistics Canada and BC Stats: censuses 1891-2021 and population estimates; Canada Year Book • Map data: OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), tiles by OpenFreeMap; elevation: Mapzen/AWS Terrain Tiles (SRTM) Population figures between counted years are estimates (marked ≈). Music: original score made for this video. Instrument samples: VSCO 2 Community Edition by Versilian Studios (CC0). This Vancouver timelapse is a city timelapse built from real terrain and OpenStreetMap data, with the districts, shoreline, ships and landmarks dated from historical records. Which city should I build next?