Bridgetown, Nova Scotia

Next Station East: Paradise
Next Station West: Tupperville

Facilities & Features

Commerce & Industry

Acadian Distillers
Annapolis Valley Cider
J. H. Hicks & Sons
Imperial Oil Bulk Fuel, R. Wagner Agent

Two Apple Warehouses:^[1]

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 coastal 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. ^[2] 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 classic small town railway hotel, "The St. James". Bridgetown was also served by a second railway, the Halifax and South Western, which ran north of the town, served by a separate station. The DAR however remained the town's larger provider of railway freight and passenger service. In addition to a pair of apple warehouses, major industries in later years included the Annapolis Valley Cider Co. Ltd. which started the career of Minard Graves, the Bridgetown Distillery and the J. H. Hicks & Sons, a construction firm and sawmill operation that built the majority of the valley's apple warehouses. as well as many stations. Railway service ended in 1990 when the Kentville Subdivision was abandoned west of Coldbrook. However the town's classic steel truss railway bridge, both apple warehouses have survived, as has the Bridgetown Station which has been adapted as a pub and restaurant.

Bridgetown Station with the Bridgetown Bridge in background, circa 1920.
Annapolis Valley Cider Co. Ltd., Bridgetown, July 1931.
Aerial view of Bridgetown, apple warehouses at upper left, DAR bridge at centre. July, 1931.
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 Bridgetown Station. The ice destroyed the town's road bridge and almost took out the railway bridge.^[3] Work crews from Kentville cleared and rebuilt the tracks for three days to restore service on March 17. The resumption of trains stranded all over Western Nova Scotia for three days resulted in the largest postal delivery in Bridgetown's history on March 18.^[4]

The Bridgetown Railway Bridge during the Mar. 14, 1920 ice jam and flood.
The Bridgetown road bridge collapses during the ice jam with the Railway Bridge and the Annapolis Valley Cider plant in distance, Mar. 15, 1920.
The mile of the DAR mainline submerged and buried in ice at Bridgetown East, Mar. 14, 1920.
DAR telegraph pole at Bridgetown buried in large ice floes ice up to the cross arm, Mar. 14, 1920.
Sightseers posed beside the Bridgetown Railway Bridge on an ice flow as floodwaters pour over the washed out DAR roadbed, Mar. 14, 1920.
DAR railway level crossing at South Street, Bridgetown looking north, all submerged, along with the St. James Hotel on right, Mar. 14, 1920.
Floodwaters wash over the DAR mainline looking west with the Bridgetown Station and the Banner Fruit Co. warehouse, Mar. 14, 1920.
DAR tracks ripped up at Bridgetown by the ice jam and flood, with the Bridgetown Station at centre in the distance, Mar. 15, 1920.
DAR work crew arrives with two platform ballast gondolas on the Bridgetown Railway Bridge after the Mar. 14, 1920 ice jam.
DAR work crew starts to remove ice from the roadbed west of the Bridgetown Railway Bridge after the Mar. 14, 1920 flood.
Account of the Bridgetown flood and effects on the DAR, Weekly Monitor, March 17, 1920, page 1.

Later Years

No. 44 at Bridgetown station in August of 1949.
Bridgetown Railway Bridge looking west with the Bridgetown Station in background, 1965-1967.
DAR dayliner No. 9059 passing Riverside Cemetery, Bridgetown, May or June 1966.
DAR dayliner No. 9059 headed westbound past Riverside Cemetery in Bridgetown, May or June 1966.
Bridgetown Station and railyard on July 18, 1975.
Bridgetown Station left, Co-Op Store in back, and United Fruit Companies warehouse right - February 1976.
Bridgetown Station viewed from Train No. 2 with the Bridgetown Railway Bridge in background, May 26, 1977.
Bridgetown Railway Bridge, photographed by Stephen Archibald, 1982.
Crew car No. 412201 at Bridgetown in August of 1982.
MOW equipment at Bridgetown, 1980s.
North side of the apple warehouses at Bridgetown, photographed by Stephen Archibald, 1985.