Open this photo in gallery Frame grab of footage from documentary film, “The Bridge,” about the collapse of the Second Narrows Bridge in Vancouver on June 17, 1958 which killed 19 workers. Jackie Dives

Peter Hall was about 10 minutes late for disaster on June 17, 1958.

That day, that blip of time separated the draftsman for the Second Narrows Bridge from being on the under-construction crossing when two large pieces collapsed, sending dozens of workers into the Burrard Inlet.

Eighteen of 79 workers who fell into the water died within six seconds. There were stories of construction workers pulled into the depths by their tool belts and gear as the pieces of the bridge hit the water. A crane operator was trapped underwater in his cab. Efforts to save him failed. Days later, a diver helping in the recovery effort in the inlet between Vancouver and the north shore, also died.

Story continues below advertisement

Mr. Hall, then in his 20s and working with the Dominion Bridge Co. building the $15-million bridge, was en route, by car, to the construction site when the collapse occurred at 3:42 p.m. He heard the news on his car radio.

Now 86, Mr. Hall has his memories of what happened at the place now known as the Ironworkers Memorial Second Narrows Crossing. But for 60 years, Mr. Hall has also had his film.

Open this photo in gallery Draftsman Peter Hall shot 3000 feet of 16mm colour film which has never been seen until now. Jackie Dives

That would be 3,000 feet, or about 90 minutes, of 16-millimetre footage he had shot of the construction of the bridge in the nine months before the disaster. A public-relations specialist associated with the project had suggested the idea to Mr. Hall as part of a publicity effort to tell the story of the bridge. He chose Mr. Hall because the draftsman was a leader in Dominion Bridge’s camera club.

That film is the basis of a new documentary, The Bridge, directed by Vancouver filmmaker George Orr, and set to have its premiere at Vancity cinema in Vancouver on Sunday – the 60th anniversary of the disaster. This weekend will also feature a ceremony marking the anniversary of the collapse. The three surviving workers are expected to attend.

Eric Jamieson, author of the 2008 book Tragedy at Second Narrows: The Story of the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge, says the Hall footage is a valuable record.

“Mr. Hall’s film appears to be the most comprehensive moving images I have seen,” he said,

Mr. Orr uses Mr. Hall’s footage to help illustrate the story of the collapse, and the aftermath of the tragedy. He adds modern-day footage he shot for this project to add some context to why the disaster and the bridge itself are important.

Story continues below advertisement

Open this photo in gallery Peter Hall was commissioned to film footage of Vancouver's Second Narrows Bridge before it's 1958 collapse. CHAD HIPOLITO

The rebuilt bridge opened in 1960, and today, the six-lane crossing is as much a transportation fixture of the Vancouver region as the Don Valley Parkway in Toronto or the Jacques Cartier Bridge across the St. Lawrence River in Montreal.

Mr. Hall’s camera was rolling after the collapse, and there is vivid material on screen showing the tangle of steel and girders in the water after the spans – or large pieces of the bridge – fell into the water.

But what is also mesmerizing are the more routine moments in the construction – shots of the pouring of concrete; iron pieces being shaped into components for the project and then moved to the work site for installation, and cheerful and bemused workers on the job, often far above the water without safety harnesses.

Mr. Hall remains haunted by some of the moments he experienced, looking on at the aftermath of disaster.

“I couldn’t believe what I was looking at,” he says. “I remember one fellow came off the damaged bridge and he had an injured man over each shoulder, and I said to him, ‘Where did you get the strength to do that?’ He said, ‘I don’t know.’ But he did it.”

Open this photo in gallery The 1958 collapse was one of the worst industrial accidents in B.C. history. Peter Hall shows some of the 16mm footage from his home in Parksville, B.C., on Friday June 1, 2018. CHAD HIPOLITO

In 1958, the crossing was the second bridge in the area, a cantilever structure about 1,300 metres long. The collapse was eventually blamed, in part, on a junior engineer’s miscalculation in work on a falsework pillar intended to support a piece of the bridge. Such falsework structures are used to hold components in place during construction.

Story continues below advertisement

After the collapse, no one wanted anything to do with Mr. Hall’s film and it basically remained in a closet until last fall when Mr. Orr heard about it. He contacted Mr. Hall and began a process that ended with the footage being used as the core of his new documentary.

While Mr. Orr has deep respect for Mr. Hall, he says about a third of the vintage footage was out of focus and overexposed or underexposed.

“He wasn’t shooting a narrative. He was just essentially point and clicking,” Mr. Orr said of Mr. Hall’s work. “There were no interviews in the film, no characters, no apparent story.”

He knew there was a story there, but couldn’t initially see it. The turning point came when he went for lunch with his old friend George Garrett, a veteran Vancouver radio reporter, now retired, who mentioned that the bridge collapse was one of the first stories of his career.

Mr. Orr shot Mr. Garrett, recalling his experiences. Mr. Garrett suggested others to speak to. “The whole thing just unfolded, step by step, in front of me,” he says. “Everything just popped in front of me as the next thing to do.”

It took five months of work. Mr. Orr figures he spent about $5,000 on the project, a mix of costs for three trips to Victoria, dubbing costs and getting access to a Stompin’ Tom Connors song played over the end credits.

Story continues below advertisement

“I am not a believer that all things happen for a reason, but there’s a serendipity about all this,” says Mr. Orr. “I came into the footage. I talked to my friend George Garrett, over lunch. That led to things.”