27

Ships looking north from head of the harbour
1905
Port Hawkesbury Waterfront

28

The stories have been told that at one time there were so many ships in Port Hawkesbury harbour that you could walk across their decks to get from the town over to Point Tupper on the other side of the cove.

29

Port Hawkesbury waterfront from government wharf. Car ferry docks are on the right.
1930
Port Hawkesbury, Inverness County, Nova Scotia, Canada

30

The town of Port Hawkesbury became the front porch of Cape Breton Island when the car ferry docks were built on the south side of the government wharf.
Granville Street had all of the stores, hotels, and services necessary for the surrounding areas. The town of Port Hawkesbury has continued to provide these services over the years to the present time, fifty years after the construction of the Canso Causeway.

31

Coastal steamer S.S. Halifax
1900
Strait of Canso, Nova Scotia, Canada

32

Until 1880, when the railroad arrived in Mulgrave on the mainland side of the Strait, the water was the only means of travel any distance to other communities or to the "Boston States". Coastal passenger boats and Boston Boats made regular weekly, scheduled stops at the Plant Line Wharf in Port Hawkesbury and the Mulgrave Wharf. This would be the means of transportation used by residents well into the 1900's.

33

Creamery Port Hawkesbury
1930
Port Hawkesbury, Inverness County, Nova Scotia, Canada

34

Point Tupper from Port Hawkesbury
1901
Point Tupper, Richmond County, Nova Scotia, Canada

35

Point Tupper was the gateway for all trains onto Cape Breton Island by 1890 and the terminus for all train traffic for the Scotia ferries.
By 1922, there were 44,950 railway cars transported by ferry boats across the Strait of Canso that would have been handled at the Point Tupper and Mulgrave locations. On either side, trains were broken, switched, sorted and remade before continuing either towards Sydney or to Western Canadian cities.
During World War II, the traffic varied greatly, exceeding 120,000 cars a year.

36

Point Tupper train ferry terminal
1935
Point Tupper, Richmond County, Nova Scotia, Canada

37

By 1901, Inverness was linked to Point Tupper with the completion of a new line and in 1903, St. Peters also got a rail link.

38

Port Hawkesbury Marine Railway and Salvage Company
1940
Point Tupper, Richmond County, Nova Scotia, Canada

39

The Port Hawkesbury Marine Railway and Salvage Company, established in 1866, was located in Point Tupper. The company was purchased in 1923 by businessman and politician Art Langley, Sr. Featuring two slips, or dry docks, for seagoing vessels, the company serviced ships that had been damaged, or required other maintenance.
Pictured here, a ship is in the larger of the company's two marine slips. It was Langley's company that refloated and repaired the car ferry John Cabot after its 1952 collision, and the fire that gutted it in 1955.

40

Langley Bros. Boot and Shoe Repairs
1920
Point Tupper, Richmond County, Nova Scotia, Canada