46

FUTURE PRIME MINISTER CROSSED THE FOOTBRIDGE
Lennan MacDonald of Port Hawkesbury who was timekeeper for T.C. Gorman Ltd.has one story about a brush with a future Canadian political power.
"We had a bridge across. It was just for men, for workers, to cross back and forth... a suspended bridge across. Three young guys arrived on motorcycles. They walked the bikes across the temporary structure and took off across the causeway... Many years later when he was campaigning in this area, we found out one of the three was Pierre Elliott Trudeau".
Picture taken November 29th, 1954.

47

Strait of Canso crossing construction record
1955
TEXT ATTACHMENT


48

Canso Canal Swing Bridge under construction looking north east.
1955
Canso Canal Bridge
TEXT ATTACHMENT


49

Lock gates under construction at the Canso Canal looking south
1 April 1955
Canso Canal work site
TEXT ATTACHMENT


50

LOCK GATES UNIQUE - According to an advertisement in the August 10,1955, Post Record, the lock gates installed by Maritime Steel Foundries Limited at the Canso Canal were the first of their kind in Canada.

51

Construction site from the air looking north east
1955
Canso Canal work site
TEXT ATTACHMENT


52

Lennie MacDonald,"People should realize that the Canal was drilled and blasted through Cape Breton Island with cofferdams at both ends which were removed at the end of the project and the entrances were dredged out by Canada Dredge and Dock. The dredging crew went to work on the St. Lawrence Seaway project following their work at the Canal. Some Nova Scotians went to the Seaway with them. A couple were A.J. Gillis and Emerson Long."

53

Diagram Canso Causeway and Canal construction
1955
TEXT ATTACHMENT


54

Ship passing through Canso Canal
1960
Canso Canal Bridge
TEXT ATTACHMENT


55

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT RESPONSIBLE FOR CANAL
Upon completion of construction of the Canso Canal in 1955, the responsibility for operation, maintenance and control of those facilities was assigned to the Canals Division, Marine Administrator, Department of Transport.
Mooring berths on either end of the canal would eventually be constructed .
Don Currey, the second superintendent for the Canso Canal, said in a 2004 interview that their department was responsible initially for the Canso Causeway repairs and maintenance until the Department of Highways took over the job.

56

Canso Canal looking north in winter.
February, 1983
Canso Canal
TEXT ATTACHMENT


57

Port Hastings Village
1959
Port Hastings, Inverness County, Nova Scotia, Canada

58

Canso Canal looking south
1980
Canso Canal

59

Photo of the Strait of Canso
1980
Strait of Canso, Nova Scotia, Canada