[3] Work was under way by 1889 when one of the principals of the firm, Robert Gillespie Reid, arrived on site and spent some three weeks testing sea bed sediments and measuring the currents running through the Barra Strait.

Other complicating factors in the construction of the bridge were the very strong, erratic tidal currents in the strait, overburden on the bedrock, and the presence of ice during the winter and spring breakup.

These were then sunk in the locations where the bridge piers were to be built and sections were added to the tops until the dams reached from the surface to the bottom of the channel, resting on the floor of the strait.

An iron forge was set up on the site for the express purpose of producing rivets, and assembly of the trusses was started, first onshore, and then completed on scows floating in the water.

[5] At midnight on October 18, 1890, the five-car special train of Governor General Lord Stanley left Halifax, and arrived at Mulgrave in the early morning.

[7] By the time of the first World War, as rolling stock on the Sydney Subdivision had continually been getting heavier, it was determined the bridge needed to be upgraded to handle the loads.

[5] Marine traffic through the Barra Strait has been logged since 1991, and has consistently ranged between 1700 and 2100 boats passing through the swing and bascule bridges each year, with a peak of 2100 passages recorded for 2002.

[10] On December 30, 2014 Genesee & Wyoming, the operators of the Cape Breton and Central Nova Scotia Railway (CBNS), ceased rail service on Sydney Subdivision of the line.