Canso Causeway

[2] Prior to the construction of the causeway, Cape Breton Island was connected to the mainland by separate railway car and motor vehicle ferries.

Initially a small 2-railcar barge was used, however the growth of traffic from Industrial Cape Breton soon mandated that a dedicated rail ferry service be established.

Toward the end of the service in the 1950s, vessels included the George H. Murray, John Cabot, Ponte de Canseau, and Sir Charles Tupper.

In the late 1890s and early 1900s, the Industrial Cape Breton region was experiencing unprecedented economic growth as a result of multiple coal mines and two large integrated steel mills having opened.

Finally, project engineers agreed that because of the size, the amount of ice, the strength of the currents that filled the Strait of Canso every winter, and the depth of the water, it would be difficult to construct a bridge, and instead, a causeway option was chosen.

Contracts were awarded from 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 that was attended by federal Minister of Transport Lionel Chevrier and Premier of Nova Scotia Angus L.

Several industries were attracted to the Point Tupper area, including the Stora pulp and paper mill, a Gulf Oil refinery and a heavy water plant.

[citation needed] The causeway also had the effect of damming the waterway for migrating ground fish stocks for decades until some of these species were able to determine how to get around Cape Breton Island into the gulf.

One particularly troublesome interloper has been the bobcat, which has slowly forced the more gentle lynx out of its traditional hunting grounds and up into the Cape Breton Highlands.