56th Street
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
56th Street is the main arterial street in Tsawwassen, British Columbia (Canada), and provides the only legal land access to the hamlet and geographical anomaly of Point Roberts, in Washington State. Much of the area it passes through is suburban in nature: some residential, some commercial, some mixed, and in two areas, some rural. It runs due north/south for its entire 5.6 km run.
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Road details
- 56th Street runs 5.6km from the Canada/U.S.A. border, through the town centre of Tsawwassen (a part of Delta) and then into the rural farmlands between Tsawwassen and Ladner, terminating at 28th Ave.
- At its north end, at the corner with 28th Ave (the 2800 block), 56th Street is a well-travelled two-lane farm road that forms a back-way into Ladner, which many local residents use.
- South of Highway 17 (about the 2300 block), the street turns into a four-lane highway, forming the main entrance to Tsawwassen. In fact, all of the street southwards from this point is under the jurisdiction of the provincial government of British Columbia.
- In the last few years, much effort has been put into making this entrance to Tsawwassen more interesting; it has now become a tree-lined boulevard with multiple banners and flowers lining the street, particularly during the summer months.
- At 19th Ave, 56th Street enters the urban area of Tsawwassen, and a concrete boulevard is added. The road alternates between four and five lanes (including turning bays) for the next two kilometres, and a concrete median is added, complete with banners, trees and flowers native to the area, and a move that brought on a lot of controversy in the community - the addition of imported palm trees. (Southwestern BC is warm enough to allow palm trees to survive all winter long.)
- The main intersection along the street is at 12th Avenue, Tsawassen's main east-west corridorr. Tsawwassen's largest shopping malls bound this intersection on three sides - the Town Centre Mall, Bayside Village, and Tsawwassen Mall. As you zip across this intersection, if you look east, you will catch a fleeting glimpse of Boundary Bay and, beyond it, the community of White Rock on the other side.
- At 8A Avenue, the right-hand southbound lane abruptly ends, and 56 Street runs as a three-lane street (plus a bike path through the greenbelt on its eastern side) until 6th Avenue. As of April 2005, this segment is under reconstruction.
- South of 6th Ave, 56 Street becomes a rural road again in a sense - a two-lane road forming the boundary between rural farmland (the "Southlands") and the densely urbanized Tsawwassen on the left.
- Once the street passes 4th Avenue, it begins a steep climb (now at four lanes - three lanes heading south, one lane north) up a large hill towards the Canada/United States border. South of 1st Avenue, the far right lane southbound is the NEXUS lane, open only to citizens carrying a special pass that permits them to cross the border faster than others.
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Major intersections
Since the mid 1980s, Tsawwassen's already large community has become even more bustling, as witnessed by the amount of traffic lights Delta needed to install over the years - particularly in the central commercial district, or "Downtown Tsawwassen". Any of the newer lights are highlighted in bold; any lights that used to be pedestrian lights but are now four-way are in italics.
- 1st Avenue (pedestrian traffic light)
- 4th Avenue
- 6th Avenue (traffic light)
- 8A Avenue (traffic light)</B>
- <B>Royal Oaks Drive (pedestrian traffic light)
- 12th Avenue (major traffic light and turning signals)
- Town Centre Mall (traffic light and turning signals)
- View Crescent (traffic light and turning signals)</B>
- 16th Avenue (traffic light)
- 18th Avenue (traffic light)
- <B>19th Avenue (traffic light)
- Highway 17 (major traffic light and turning signals)
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Major attractions
- Canada/US Border Obelisk (at its southern terminus)
- Diefenbaker Park (at 1st Ave)
- Sunnyside Nurseries (at Hwy 17)
- South Delta Senior Secondary (west at 6th or 8A Ave)
- Boundary Bay Cemetery (at 8A Ave)
- Winskill Pool and Winskill Park (9 Ave)
- Bayside Village (SW corner at 12 Ave)
- Town Centre Mall (NW corner at 12 Ave)
- Tim Hortons, a restaurant (at 12 Ave)
- Beach Grove Private Golf Course (east at 12 Ave)
- Centennial Beach and Boundary Bay (east at 12 Ave)
- Starbucks, a coffee shop (at View Crescent)
- South Delta Recreation Centre (at 18th and 19th Ave)
- McDonalds, a restaurant (at 19th Ave)
- Ferry to Victoria, Nanaimo, and the Gulf Islands (at Hwy 17)
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Photographs
[56th Street, from 12th Avenue, northward (http://www.globalairphotos.com/delta/2000photos/dlh2000_007.jpg)]
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History
- From Hwy 17 to 12th Ave, the street once used to be known as "Boundary Bay Road"; this old alignment would then run down 12th Ave. and connect to the current segment of Boundary Bay Road in eastern Tsawwassen.
- South of 12th Ave, the road used to be known as Point Roberts Road.
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Trivia
- The "Boundary Bay"/"Point Roberts" crossing at the foot of 56th Street is the furthest west international crossing from the Canada and US on the entire continent, excluding Alaskan crossings.
- On the first long weekend in August (the B.C. Civic Holiday), a parade as part of Tsawwassen's annual Sun Festival is held on 56th Street, between 16th and 9th Avenues.
- There was a movement in the early 2000s to have the street renamed as "Tsawwassen Boulevard" or "The Tsawwassen Strip".
- In Point Roberts, 56th Street turns into Tyee Drive.
- Short stubs of 56th Street are present a few kilometres north of its northern terminus in Ladner; these streets are small residential streets, but run along the same line of longitude that 56 Street runs.
- 56th Street runs from exactly 49 degrees N to 49 degrees 03'05".
