Dominion Atlantic Railway Digital Preservation Initiative - Wiki
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Bridgetown Bridge
Bridgetown Bridge
Mile 44.47 on the Kentville Subdivision, just east of the Bridgetown Station
The first railway crossing at Bridgetown over the Annapolis River was completed in 1869 and was described by W. W. Clarke as a covered railway bridge.[1] It was replaced by an iron truss bridge in 1881.[2] The final bridge was a 155-foot long steel through truss bridge.[3] It narrowly survived a major flood and ice jam in 1920 that took out the town's road bridge and washed away tracks and the roadbed either side of the bridge.[4] The last train crossed in 1990 when the Kentville Subdivision was abandoned west of Coldbrook. However the bridge was redecked for recreational use and is promoted as one of "two iconic bridges" on the Harvest Moon recreational trailway which follows the old DAR roadbed from Grand Pre to Annapolis Royal.[5]
Gallery
The Bridgetown Bridge photographed by the Palace Railroad Photograph Car, at unknown date, likely 1880s.
No. 18 at the bridge, Bridgetown.
Bridgetown Station with the Bridgetown Bridge in background, circa 1920.
The Bridgetown Railway Bridge during the March 14, 1920 ice jam and flood.
Sightseers posed beside the Bridgetown Railway Bridge on an ice flow as floodwaters pour over the washed out DAR roadbed, Mar. 14, 1920.
The Bridgetown road bridge collapses during ice jam, with the Railway Bridge and the Annapolis Valley Cider plant 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.
Aerial view of Bridgetown, apple warehouses at upper left, DAR bridge at centre. July, 1931.
Bridgetown Railway Bridge looking west with the Bridgetown Station in background, 1965-1967.
Bridgetown Station viewed from Train No. 2 with the Bridgetown Railway Bridge in background, May 26, 1977.
Bridgetown Railway Bridge, 1982.
Bridgetown Railway Bridge looking southeast, 1984.
The Bridgetown Bridge just east of the station and facing east on August 30, 2011.
A close look at the Bridgetown Bridge on August 30, 2011.
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References
- ↑ W.W. Clarke, Clarke's History of the Earliest Railways in Nova Scotia, page 38.
- ↑ Elizabeth Ruggles Coward, Bridgetown, Nova Scoita: its History Until 1900, Kentville Publishing, 1955, page 229.
- ↑ DAR Memorandum of General Information, page 13
- ↑ "The Flood in the Annapolis Valley", Weekly Monitor, March 17, 1920, page 1
- ↑ "Harvest Moon Trailway", Discover Nova Scotia.
