VPD officers spotted on a training exercise atop Lions Gate Bridge

Vancouver Police Department emergency response officers got a bird’s eye view of the city and the North Shore during a recent training exercise that took them to the very top of one of the Lions Gate Bridge towers.

The officers climbed to the top of the tower during a high-angle bridge rescue training exercise, according to a VPD spokesman.

North Vancouver photographer Mark Teasdale was on the waterfront with a view of the bridge Sunday evening, waiting to get a shot of the full moon rising, when a dog walker pointed out the officers on the bridge.

Teasdale said he’s photographed the military training with ropes on the bridge in the past.

In 2017, the province considered – then nixed – a proposal to allow fee-paying adventure seekers to climb to the highest point of the Lions Gate Bridge.

Local entrepreneur Kevin Thomson had been discussing a plan that would have allowed people to use a 110-metre service ladder inside the bridge’s support towers to go from the base at sea level to the navigational beacon at the top.

But the province rejected the plan, saying it had determined "it was not in the best interest of British Columbians.”