Canso Causeway
Encyclopedia
Causeway
In modern usage, a causeway is a road or railway elevated, usually across a broad body of water or wetland.- Etymology :When first used, the word appeared in a form such as “causey way” making clear its derivation from the earlier form “causey”. This word seems to have come from the same source by...
in Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
.
The causeway crosses the Strait of Canso
Strait of Canso
The Strait of Canso , is a strait located in the province of Nova Scotia, Canada. It divides the Nova Scotia peninsula from Cape Breton Island....
, connecting Cape Breton Island
Cape Breton Island
Cape Breton Island is an island on the Atlantic coast of North America. It likely corresponds to the word Breton, the French demonym for Brittany....
by road to the Nova Scotia peninsula
Nova Scotia peninsula
The Nova Scotia peninsula is a peninsula on the Atlantic coast of North America.-Location:The Nova Scotia peninsula is part of the province of Nova Scotia, Canada and is connected to the neighbouring province of New Brunswick through the Isthmus of Chignecto...
. Its crest thickness is 40 m (131.2 ft), carrying the two vehicle traffic lanes of the Trans-Canada Highway
Trans-Canada Highway
The Trans-Canada Highway is a federal-provincial highway system that joins the ten provinces of Canada. It is, along with the Trans-Siberian Highway and Australia's Highway 1, one of the world's longest national highways, with the main route spanning 8,030 km...
, Nova Scotia Highway 104
Nova Scotia Highway 104
Highway 104 in Nova Scotia runs from the New Brunswick border near Amherst to St. Peter's. Except for the portion on Cape Breton Island between Port Hawkesbury and St. Peter's, it is part of the Trans-Canada Highway....
on the mainland side, and Nova Scotia Highway 105
Nova Scotia Highway 105
Highway 105 in Nova Scotia represents the Cape Breton Island leg of the Trans-Canada Highway. It runs from the junction just east of the Canso Causeway in Port Hastings to the Marine Atlantic ferry terminal in North Sydney, representing a distance of ....
on the Cape Breton side, as well as the single track mainline of the Cape Breton and Central Nova Scotia Railway
Cape Breton and Central Nova Scotia Railway
The Cape Breton and Central Nova Scotia Railway is a railway operating in Nova Scotia between Sydney and Truro with spurs at Sydney, Point Tupper, Trenton and Stellarton....
.
Constructed in an "S" shape, the causeway has a base width of 244 m (800.5 ft) in waters having a maximum depth of 65 m (213.3 ft).
Cape Breton Island remains a true island as a result of the 24 m (78.7 ft) wide and 570 m (1,870.1 ft) long Canso Canal
Canso Canal
The Canso Canal is a short canal located in Nova Scotia, Canada.-Canal location:The Canso Canal is located in the Strait of Canso, on the eastern side of the Canso Causeway, a rock-fill causeway which opened in 1955 to carry a 2-lane highway and railway tracks from Cape Breton Island to mainland...
, which is located at the eastern end of the causeway to allow ship traffic to transit the Strait of Canso. The 94 m (308.4 ft) Canso Canal Bridge
Canso Canal Bridge
The Canso Canal Bridge is a swing bridge in Nova Scotia, Canada.The bridge is a rotating swing bridge that crosses the Canso Canal at the eastern end of the Canso Causeway...
is a swing bridge
Swing bridge
A swing bridge is a movable bridge that has as its primary structural support a vertical locating pin and support ring, usually at or near to its centre of gravity, about which the turning span can then pivot horizontally as shown in the animated illustration to the right...
which carries the road and railway line across the canal.
The word "Canso" is believed to be derived from the Mi'kmaq
Mi'kmaq language
The Mi'kmaq language is an Eastern Algonquian language spoken by nearly 9,100 Mi'kmaq in Canada and the United States out of a total ethnic Mi'kmaq population of roughly 20,000. The word Mi'kmaq is a plural word meaning 'my friends' ; the adjectival form is Míkmaw...
word kamsok, which means "opposite the lofty cliffs."
Ferries
Prior to the construction of the causeway, Cape Breton Island was connected to the mainland by separate railway carTrain ferry
A train ferry is a ship designed to carry railway vehicles. Typically, one level of the ship is fitted with railway tracks, and the vessel has a door at the front and/or rear to give access to the wharves. In the United States, train ferries are sometimes referred to as "car ferries", as...
and motor vehicle ferries
Ferry
A ferry is a form of transportation, usually a boat, but sometimes a ship, used to carry primarily passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo as well, across a body of water. Most ferries operate on regular, frequent, return services...
.
Mulgrave, Nova Scotia
Mulgrave is a small town on the Strait of Canso in Guysborough County, Nova Scotia, Canada; immediately across from the town of Port Hawkesbury. As of 2006 the population was 879....
on the Nova Scotia side, west to New Glasgow
New Glasgow, Nova Scotia
New Glasgow is a town in Pictou County, in the province of Nova Scotia, Canada. It is situated on the banks of the East River of Pictou, which flows into Pictou Harbour, a sub-basin of the Northumberland Strait....
. In 1890, the ICR built a line from Point Tupper
Point Tupper, Nova Scotia
Point Tupper is a small rural community located in Richmond County, Nova Scotia on the Strait of Canso in western Cape Breton Island.-History:...
on the Cape Breton side, east to Sydney
Sydney, Nova Scotia
Sydney is a Canadian urban community in the province of Nova Scotia. It is situated on the east coast of Cape Breton Island and is administratively part of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality....
. As a result, a rail ferry service was necessary so that rail cars from Cape Breton Island could be interchanged with the mainland North America rail network. Initially a small 2-railcar barge
Car float
A railroad car float or rail barge is an unpowered barge with rail tracks mounted on its deck. It is used to move railroad cars across water obstacles, or to locations they could not otherwise go, and is pushed by a towboat or towed by a tugboat...
was used, however the growth of traffic from Industrial Cape Breton soon mandated that a dedicated rail ferry
Train ferry
A train ferry is a ship designed to carry railway vehicles. Typically, one level of the ship is fitted with railway tracks, and the vessel has a door at the front and/or rear to give access to the wharves. In the United States, train ferries are sometimes referred to as "car ferries", as...
service be established. This service was operated by the ICR until 1918 when the ICR was merged into Canadian National Railways (CNR). CNR operated the ferries from 1918 until the causeway opened in 1955. Vessels used included: Mulgrave (1893–1901), Scotia (1903–1955), and Scotia II (1915–1955).
Various private passenger and horse-drawn carriage ferry services operated between Point Tupper or Port Hawkesbury or Port Hastings to the Nova Scotia side. By the 1930s, the Nova Scotia Department of Transportation took responsibility for providing the automobile ferry service. By the 1940s, as a result of war-time travel growth, as well as the growing popularity of automobiles, the service was expanded to 24 hours/day. Toward the end of the service in the 1950s, vessels included the George H. Murray, John Cabot, Ponte de Canseau, and Sir Charles Tupper.
Proposed bridge
Cantilever bridge
A cantilever bridge is a bridge built using cantilevers, structures that project horizontally into space, supported on only one end. For small footbridges, the cantilevers may be simple beams; however, large cantilever bridges designed to handle road or rail traffic use trusses built from...
. The span
Span (architecture)
Span is the distance between two intermediate supports for a structure, e.g. a beam or a bridge.A span can be closed by a solid beam or of a rope...
measuring 1800 ft (548.6 m) would have been longer than the Firth of Forth bridge.http://www.alts.net/ns1625/nshist15.html
Construction
The Canso Causeway was built at a narrow location on the Strait of Canso, several miles northwest of Port Hawkesbury and Mulgrave, crossing from Cape Porcupine near Auld's CoveAuld's Cove, Nova Scotia
Auld's Cove is a community in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, located in Guysborough County on Nova Scotia Highway 104 at the Canso Causeway. It is thought to have been named for Alexander Auld, an early settler who had grist and saw mills there....
on the Nova Scotia side to Port Hastings on the Cape Breton side. Approximately 10092000 t (9,932,582.1 LT) of rock for building the causeway was quarried from a mountain on Cape Porcupine.
Contracts were awarded, beginning in May 1952 to build approach roads and rail lines for the causeway construction and the project was officially started at a ceremony on September 16, 1952 attended by Minister of Transport
Minister of Transport (Canada)
The Minister of Transport is the Minister of the Crown in the Canadian Cabinet who is responsible for overseeing the federal government's transportation regulatory and development department, Transport Canada...
Lionel Chevrier
Lionel Chevrier
Lionel Chevier, was a Canadian Member of Parliament and cabinet minister.Born in Cornwall, Ontario, the son of former Cornwall mayor Joseph E. Chevrier, he was educated in Cornwall, at the University of Ottawa, the University of Montreal and Osgoode Hall. Chevrier was called to the bar in 1928...
and Premier of Nova Scotia
Premier of Nova Scotia
The Premier of Nova Scotia is the first minister for the Canadian province of Nova Scotia who presides over the Executive Council of Nova Scotia. Following the Westminster system, the premier is normally the leader of the political party which has the most seats in the Nova Scotia House of Assembly...
Angus L. MacDonald.
The Strait of Canso was permanently blocked on Friday, December 10, 1954; construction continued through the winter on building the roadway and railway line, as well as finishing the Canso Canal and its swing bridge. Construction was finally completed on April 13, 1955 when the railway line and roadway were finished at a cost of $22 million (CAD).
The first train across the causeway was a Canadian National Railways work train, led by steam locomotive #2639 on April 18, 1955. The railway line across the causeway entered active service on Saturday, May 14, 1955 when the first revenue train was a 10 car passenger train led by steam locomotive #6014, after which the rail ferry service from Mulgrave to Point Tupper was discontinued. The roadway across the causeway opened to vehicle traffic on May 20, 1955 after which the vehicle ferry service was discontinued.
Official opening
The official opening of the Canso Causeway took place on August 13, 1955 when several thousand people attended ceremonies which included a gala parade of what was meant to be 100 bagpipersBagpipes
Bagpipes are a class of musical instrument, aerophones, using enclosed reeds fed from a constant reservoir of air in the form of a bag. Though the Scottish Great Highland Bagpipe and Irish uilleann pipes have the greatest international visibility, bagpipes of many different types come from...
heralding Cape Breton's road connection to the North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
n mainland, however, the 100th bagpiper refused to play.
Legacy
When the causeway was completed, the eastern end of the Strait of Canso became ice free during the winter. Several industries were attracted to the Strait Area, including the StoraStora Enso
Stora Enso Oyj is a Finnish pulp and paper manufacturer, formed by the merger of Swedish mining and forestry products company Stora and Finnish forestry products company Enso-Gutzeit Oy in 1998. It is headquartered in Helsinki, and it has approximately 29,000 employees...
pulp and paper mill, a Gulf
Gulf Oil
Gulf Oil was a major global oil company from the 1900s to the 1980s. The eighth-largest American manufacturing company in 1941 and the ninth-largest in 1979, Gulf Oil was one of the so-called Seven Sisters oil companies...
oil refinery and a heavy water
Heavy water
Heavy water is water highly enriched in the hydrogen isotope deuterium; e.g., heavy water used in CANDU reactors is 99.75% enriched by hydrogen atom-fraction...
plant.
Aside from blocking sea ice, the blocking of the Strait of Canso caused significant environmental damage from the enormous changes in the tidal regime of the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence all the way to the mouth of the St. Lawrence River. The causeway also had the effect of damming the waterway for migrating ground fish stocks for decades until these species were able to determine how to get around Cape Breton Island into the gulf. In addition, the causeway allowed several non-native species access to Cape Breton. One particularly troublesome interloper has been the bobcat
Bobcat
The bobcat is a North American mammal of the cat family Felidae, appearing during the Irvingtonian stage of around 1.8 million years ago . With twelve recognized subspecies, it ranges from southern Canada to northern Mexico, including most of the continental United States...
, which has slowly forced the more gentle lynx out of its traditional hunting grounds and up into the highlands.
From 1955 to the early 1990s, the Canso Causeway charged a toll to motorists. The toll was discontinued after the construction costs (approximately $23 million) were paid off.
In 1993, CN Rail
Canadian National Railway
The Canadian National Railway Company is a Canadian Class I railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec. CN's slogan is "North America's Railroad"....
sold its Truro
Truro, Nova Scotia
-Education:Truro has one high school, Cobequid Educational Centre. Post-secondary options include a campus of the Nova Scotia Community College, as well as the Nova Scotia Agricultural College in the neighboring town of Bible Hill.- Sports :...
-Sydney
Sydney, Nova Scotia
Sydney is a Canadian urban community in the province of Nova Scotia. It is situated on the east coast of Cape Breton Island and is administratively part of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality....
railway line which crossed the Canso Causeway to the Cape Breton and Central Nova Scotia Railway
Cape Breton and Central Nova Scotia Railway
The Cape Breton and Central Nova Scotia Railway is a railway operating in Nova Scotia between Sydney and Truro with spurs at Sydney, Point Tupper, Trenton and Stellarton....
. Today, CB&CNS employees operate the swing bridge across the Canso Canal.