 Until the 1964 completion of the Highway 1 freeway, which bypassed New Westminster to its north, Columbia Street, the downtown core of New Westminster close to the city's waterfront, was the main commercial retail and service centre for the Fraser Valley and nearby areas of Burnaby and Coquitlam.Known as "the golden mile", it hosted major department stores such as Eaton's, Kresge's and Woolworths as well as long-established New Westminster retailers.This was a time when road travel to Vancouver remained distant for Valley communities, and daily interurban rail service to and from Chilliwack was still in place (the service ended in 1950).