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The Needles Ferry

by John MacFarlane 2019

The Needles Ferry ramp showing the cable hardware(Photo from the John MacFarlane collection.)

There is a vehicle and passenger ferry that connects the two sides of the Columbia in what is known as Arrow Lake between Fauquier and Needles. The ferry facility minimal. A concrete ramp serves as access that is bracketed by the cables anchored to the shore. There are anchor points on the shore that adjust the cables according to the fluctuating water levels in the river. The variation over the year is significant and requires constant adjustment.

The Needles Ferry (Photo from the John MacFarlane collection.)

Unlike the facilities used by coastal ferries operated by B.C. Ferries these terminals are designed to meet the operational needs on the river.

The Needles Ferry (Photo from the John MacFarlane collection.)

The ferry ride is free and can be done on foot for those who prefer to walk on and photograph the operation.

The Needles Ferry (Photo from the John MacFarlane collection.)

It is possible to view five or more of these ferries in one day through careful route planning and observing schedules for those routes that have them.

To quote from this article please cite:

MacFarlane, John (2018) Needles Ferry. Nauticapedia.ca 2018. http://nauticapedia.ca/Gallery/Needles_Ferry.php

Site News: February 12, 2025

ANOTHER MILESTONE REACHED

The vessel database has been updated and is now holding 95,146 vessel histories (with 16,409 images and 14,064 records of ship wrecks and marine disasters).

The mariner and naval biography database has also been updated and now contains 58,599 entries (with 4000 images).

My thanks to Ray Warren who is beginning a long process of filling gaps in the photo record of the vessel histories in the vessel database. Ray has been documenting the ships of Vancouver Harbour for more than 60 years.

Thanks to contributor Mike Rydqvist McCammon for the hundreds of photos he continues to contribute to illustrate British Columbia’s floating heritage.

My very special thanks to our volunteer IT adviser, John Eyre, who (since 2021) has modernized, simplified and improved the update process for the databases into semi–automated processes. His participation has been vital to keeping the Nauticapedia available to our netizens.

Thanks to John Spivey who is beginning his 4th year of fact checking all of the entries in the vessel database.

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