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Halfway River Bridge
Halfway River Bridge
Mile 37.17 on the Halifax Subdivision
Located just east of Hantsport, the bridge crossed the Halfway River (so named because in early times it marked the halfway point between Grand Pre and Windsor)[1]
The bridge began in 1869 as a wooden truss with a pile trestle approach. The wooden truss crossing the river was 150-fee long, while the trestle had 32 spans of pile trestle work, each 20 feet long. A report by engineer Alexander MacNab in 1873 noted that the main span was weak and needed a pier in the middle and that many of the pile trestles were being replaced by trestle bents.[2]
The wooden bridge was replaced by a causeway with an aboiteau in 1879.[3]
The bridge in its final decades consisted of a 40-foot-long pile trestle over a spillway and a causeway at the Halfway River aboiteau with three 60-inch corrugated metal pipes.[4]
Gallery
Construction work at the Halfway River Bridge in Hantsport, with the town in the background, date unknown.
Flying Bluenose at Hantsport crossing the Halfway River Bridge, possibly with coach No. 27 and baggage car No. 46 circa 1920.
References
- ↑ C. Bruce Fergusson, "Hantsport", Place-Names and Places of Nova Scotia Nova Scotia Archives (1967), p. 278.
- ↑ Windsor and Annapolis Railway, Report of Alexander MacNab, C. E., November 1, 1873, p. 7.
- ↑ Allen B. Robertson, Tide and Timber: Hantsport Nova Scotia 1795-1995, Lancelot Press, 1996, p. 71
- ↑ Memorandum of General Information on the Dominion Atlantic Railway, Feb. 17, 1969, page 4, Dominion Atlantic Railway, Library and Archives Canada HE2810 D7 D7 fol
