When the first Canadian Pacific Railway train arrived in the city of Vancouver in May 1887, a meagre 1,000 people had settled in the area. By the time the picture below was taken in 1893, the population had grown by several thousand, reaching approximately 15,000. Visible in the centre-right side of the photograph is Yaletown, a neighbourhood whose growth was driven by an influx of former residents of Yale, a village situated 175 kilometres east of Vancouver, who followed the CPR as it made its way west. Taken from what is now Charleston Park in Fairview, looking north, the CPR roundhouse and tracks are visible on the north bank of False Creek.

Yaletown seen from Fairview, looking north, in 1893, image via the Vancouver Archives

Fast forward to 2013, when a wider angle shows the tremendous development experienced by Vancouver, now a city of 610,000 people. Most of the industrial facilities once dotting False Creek have moved to the outskirts of town and public green spaces now occupy most of the waterfront. Similarly, the wood and brick houses of Yaletown have been replaced by glassy residential skyscrapers, making it one of the most densely populated neighbourhoods in the area. The roundhouse visible in the first picture is now hidden being the red-toned building, on the right of the image. A series of infill projects in the early 20th century also reshaped False Creek itself, pushing the waterfront out by several metres.

Yaletown seen from Fairview in 2013, image by Flickr user Hershel Shah via Creative Commons

What do you think about the changes the city of Vancouver has gone through over the last 150 years? Tell us by leaving a comment at the bottom of this page. You can also visit our Vancouver Forum to learn more about the ongoing developments in Yaletown and in the Vancouver metropolitan area. We will be back next week with yet another instalment of Throwback Thursday as we continue to look back into the past.