Bridgetown

Bridgetown, Nova Scotia

Subdivision Kentville, Mile 44.7

• Next Station East: Paradise
• Next Station West: Tupperville

Facilities & Features

• Bridgetown Station
• Bridgetown Bridge
• Bridgetown Water Tower

Commerce & Industry

• Acadian Distillers
• Annapolis Valley Cider
  
• Imperial Oil Bulk Fuel, R. Wagner Agent

Two Apple Warehouses:

• Bridgetown Fruit Company apple warehouse, (1927) 15,000 barrel capy
• Banner Fruit Company apple warehouse, (1927) 15,0000 barrel capy

Description & History

Bridgetown was the head of tide for the Annapolis River which made it an inland navigation points as schooners and later coast steamships could dock on the sheltered river bank. It was also the lowest point in the river that could be bridged which made the village a natural crossroad and early settlement point. The first bridge was built about 1805 and the community became known as Bridgetown in 1825. In addition to farming, early industries included a furniture factory, foundry and brickyard. The Windsor and Annnapolis Railway arrived in 1868, adding a railway bridge just upstream of the long-established road bridge. The railway created an additional commercial district on the south bank of the river with stores and a railway hotel.

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  Bridgetown Station with the Bridgetown Bridge in background, circa 1920.

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  Annapolis Valley Cider Co. Ltd., Bridgetown, July 1931.

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  Aerial view of Bridgetown, apple warehouses at upper left, DAR bridge at centre. July, 1931.

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  Detail of aerial view of Bridgetown with the Water Tower, section house, apple warehouses and station roof, July 1931.

Bridgetown Flood 1920

Heavy rains and two ice jams flooded Bridgetown on March 14, 1920. Water and ice submerged over a mile of the DAR mainline and washed out sections of track. The water rose to the wheels of freight cars at the warehouses and flooded the grounds of the the brand new station. The ice destroyed the town's road bridge and almost took out the railway bridge. Work crews from Kentville cleared and rebuilt the tracks for three days to restore service on March 17.

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  The Bridgetown Railway Bridge during the Mar. 14, 1920 ice jam and flood.

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  The Bridgetown road bridge collapses during the ice jam with the Railway Bridge and the Annapolis Valley Cider plant in distance, Mar. 15, 1920.

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  The mile of the DAR mainline submerged and buried in ice at Bridgetown East, Mar. 14, 1920.

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  DAR telegraph pole at Bridgetown buried in large ice floes ice up to the cross arm, Mar. 14, 1920.

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  Sightseers posed beside the Bridgetown Railway Bridge on an ice flow as floodwaters pour over the washed out DAR roadbed, Mar. 14, 1920.

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  DAR railway level crossing at South Street, Bridgetown looking north, submerged during with the St. James Hotel on right, Mar. 14, 1920.

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  Floodwaters wash over the DAR mainline looking west with the Bridgetown Station and the Banner Fruit Co. warehouse, Mar. 14, 1920.

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  DAR tracks ripped up at Bridgetown by the ice jam and flood, with the Bridgetown Station at centre in the distance, Mar. 15, 1920.

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  DAR work crew arrives with two platform ballast gondolas on the Bridgetown Railway Bridge after the Mar. 14, 1920 ice jam.

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  DAR work crew stars to remove ice from the roadbed west of the Bridgetown Railway Bridge after the Mar. 14, 1920 flood.

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  Account of the Bridgetown flood and effects on the DAR, Weekly Monitor, March 17, 1920, page 1.

Later Years

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  No. 44 at Bridgetown station in August of 1949.

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  Bridgetown Station and railyard on July 18, 1975.

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  Bridgetown Station left, Co-Op in back, and United Fruit Companies right - February 1976.

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  Crew car No. 412201 at Bridgetown in August of 1982.

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  MOW equipment at Bridgetown.

References & Footnotes

• Alexander MacNab, Windsor and Annapolis Railway, Report of Alexander MacNab Nov 1, 1873
• Dominion Atlantic Railway, 1969 Memorandum of General Information, p. 13

External Links

Bridgetown on Halifax & Southwestern Railway dpi