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[ghYHZ]

I was in Cape Breton last week and checked out what remained of two old Provincial Highway Ferry routes that were abandoned 59 years ago when the Trans Canada Highway with it's hair-pin turn over Kelly's Mountain and new Seal Island Bridge opened 1961...and a lot of that old ferry infrastructure is still there!

Prior to the opening of the Seal Island Bridge....to reach Baddeck from Sydney you followed Trunk Highway #5 to Ross Ferry.....then took a short ferry ride over to Big Harbour just north of Baddeck. There was also another ferry at Big Bras d'Or (bra door) to New Campbellton. The new bridge was located about midway between the two ferries.



























Here's a portion of the 1953 Nova Scotia Highway Map. Back then.....you had to take a ferry just to reach Cape Breton Island from Mulgrave on the mainland as the Canso Causeway didn't open until 1955.  (there was also a separate railcar ferry between Mulgrave and Point Tupper (Port Hawkesbury) Highway #4 was the main route to Sydney and it crossed the St. Peter's Canal on a one-lane swing-bridge.....and you could reach the rest of Cape Breton via five Highway Ferry routes at: Little Narrows, Grand Narrows, Ross Ferry, Bras d'Or and Englishtown.





Nova Scotia Transportation & Infrastructure Renewal  (TIR) Highway Ferry Routes today:

https://novascotia.ca/tran/hottopics/ferries.asp


The Englishtown Ferry is still operating on a shortcut to the Cabot Trail in northern Cape Breton.











And the Little Narrows Ferry offers a scenic back-roads drive along the Bras d'Or Lakes

[ghYHZ]

And while we're on Ferry Routes here in the Maritimes....... the CTMA  (Coopérative de Transport Maritime et Aérien)  Ferry that operates between Souris, Prince Edward Island and the Îles-de-la-Madeleine, Quebec will be replaced next year by a new cruise type ferry that's currently operating between Spain and Morocco

It will be replacing the 40 year old MS Madeleine (below):

[1995hoo]

Nice pictures of the old docks. Thanks for posting these. My boss and I were saying the other day that if the border weren't closed, this month would be a nice time to be on Cape Breton Island just because the heat here has been unpleasant the last few weeks.