Two young tourists may be taking selfies outside a local courthouse, after being arrested Thursday morning for climbing the Lions Gate Bridge in search of a photo op.
Drivers crossing the Lions Gate Bridge around 8:30 a.m. called 911 after seeing a man wearing a headlamp and carrying a large backpack climb over the railing and pull himself up by climbing on the bridge cables to about 15 to 18 metres above the bridge deck, said Const. Jason Doucette, media relations officer for the Vancouver Police Department.
When Vancouver police officers arrived, they could not see the man from the bridge deck. The Emergency Response Team’s high-angle rescue specialists were called out to search the enclosed pathways inside the towers and the cable systems on the bridge.
“We couldn’t see him,” said Doucette. “We didn’t know if they jumped” – or were in a blind spot or were planning to harm the public.
Police searched the south tower without finding anyone and were moving on to the north tower when two men were spied climbing down the cables back to the bridge deck, said Doucette.
Eyoalha Baker was walking across the bridge from the North Shore to Vancouver when the drama unfolded in front of her.
As she walked by the north tower, she noticed two guys running across one of the lower horizontal sections of the tower. “They were hiding,” she said. “They obviously knew they weren’t supposed to be doing that.”
Baker said the men began shimmying down to the bridge deck and when they got there were immediately handcuffed.
Traffic on the bridge was snarled for several hours as a result of the incident as police closed the centre lane until about 1 p.m.
The two men were arrested by police and their camera equipment was seized.
“It was apparent they’d climbed the bridge to take photographs,” said Doucette.
The Crown has now sworn charges of mischief against Zachary Woodrow Burke, 23, from California and 26-year-old Andrew Preston Valentine from Washington State. As of Friday afternoon, the two remained in police custody.
Doucette said the pair put themselves and other motorists on the bridge – as well as police officers who came after them – in danger.
“Our officers had to go all the way to the top,” he said.
The province is currently considering a proposal that would allow paying customers to climb the 110-metre service ladder inside the bridge’s support towers.
