Much of the original wall was constructed under the direction of James "Jimmy" Cunningham, a master stonemason who spent 32 years on the project until his death at 85. Cunningham continued supervising construction into his last days despite being ill and, on at least one occasion, went to check the seawall's progress still wearing pajamas. He died on 29 September 1963, long before the wall was finished, but remains the one most associated with the project, and a commemorative plaque can be found near Siwash Rock, where his ashes were also scattered. In contrast to the continuity during Cunningham's oversight of the project, construction of the seawall was intermittent, owing to the short-term funding commitments of the civic and federal governments. The first was completed between 1914 and 1916. A series of storms threatened the foreshore near Second Beach during the war, when water flooded the patch of land between the beach and Lost Lagoon. In 1920, the wall served as a workfare project for 2,300 unemployed men (the largest number of workers at any one time), and by 1939, an additional of the wall was finished. Another was built between 1950 and 1957, and the final was not taken on until 1968. On 26 September 1971, the last block, completing the original vision of the seawall, was tapped into place by H. H. Stevens, who also helped initiate the project in 1914 as a Member of Parliament for Vancouver. Others who laboured on the wall included unemployed relief workers again during the Great Depression, and seamen from on Deadman's Island facing punishment detail in the 1950s. Also in that decade, stone sets from the recently dismantled BC Electric Railway streetcar system were incorporated into the seawall. The original Stanley Park section of the Vancouver Seawall is approximately from Coal Harbour / Vancouver Rowing Club to Second Beach.