Purpose
The canal is a man-made water passage for marine traffic through the causeway that connects both sides of the Strait of Canso.
Due to the tides, water levels at either side of the causeway can vary as much as one metre.
When one side of water is higher than the other, the canal uses a lock, in this case, a tidal lock consisting of two sets of gates, to compensate in the difference in water levels.
An enormous amount of water with a strong current was diverted through the canal. If this current was not checked by the installation of the tidal lock, ships would not be able to pass safely through the canal.
A swing bridge was also constructed to allow road and rail traffic across the canal.
Canal Traffic
The first commercial vessel passed through the canal on September 9th, 1955.
In 1955, 75 commercial ships went through the canal.
Today, an average of 2069 ships pass through the Canso Canal each year.
The Beginning of Canal Construction
Balache Point was chosen as the location for the canal construction.
This area was selected because it was the most cost-effective location to drill, blast and dig for the construction of the canal.
T.C. Gorman (Nova Scotia) Ltd. was the general contractors chosen to build the canal and started the site preparation in April of 1953.
O.J. McCulloch Engineers Ltd. of Montreal completed the engineering work and provided project management for the canal construction.
Canal Staff
Originally, the canal staffed 8 people: 4 lockmasters, 3 canal men and a maintenance man.
The first superintendent of the Canso Canal was Victor Kyte.
Statistics
Canso Canal Lock
Length gate to gate: 243.8 m (800 ft.)
Width: 24.4 m (80 ft.)
Depth: 15.2 m (50 ft.)
Draft: 8.5 m (28 to 30 ft.)
Bridge:
Length: 93.88 m (308 ft.)
Weight: 1379 tonnes (1520 tons)
Pivot: 0.965 m (38 in.)
Canal Construction
The canal bed was blasted and excavated through Balache Point on the Cape Breton side of the Strait. The soil and rock removed was used as fill for the rest of the canal site.
Using close to 700 metres of cofferdam, a temporary enclosure of steel piles, was needed in order to keep the water out during construction.
By using soil comp they were able to create a channel deep enough for commercial vessels to pass through the Strait of Canso.
In total, 908,000 cubic yards of concrete was used to build the canal which included 120,000 tons of crushed stone and 50,000 tons of sand.
Final Details
After the gap was closed, construction workers were completing the final details of the causeway. This included: road work, installing guard rails, laying new railway track, adding rip-rap and putting in toll booths.
Crane adds rip-rap (extra rock) to the sides of the causeway, added protection against water, wave and ice erosion.
The Bridge
Construction of the 308-foot bridge began September 1st, 1954 by Maritime Steel & Foundries Limited of New Glasgow, NS.
The bridge was brought to the canal in pieces and was riveted together on site.
The completed bridge was moved into position on April 11th, 1955.
An account of this event appeared in the Cape Breton Post the following week:
The 308-foot swing bridge over the Canso Causeway locks was moved into position by a hefty bulldozer, completing the last link of the building of the world’s deepest man-made causeway.
The swing bridge links the rail link between Cape Breton and mainland Nova Scotia, consisting of a two-lane highway and a railway track.
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