After decades of proposals and delays, the Canso Causeway had begun construction in September of 1952. The Hon. Lionel Chevrier pressed a button for the first blast of dynamite to dislodge rock for fill. The Hon. Angus L. MacDonald helped dump the first load of granite into the water of the Strait of Canso. The rock used to construct the causeway was taken from an adjacent mountain know as Cape Porcupine. The rock would be dumped into a 3600 foot gully in the Strait of Canso. It is estimated some ninety-two thousand ton of granite rock was taken from the face of Cape Porcupine and dumped in the Strait of Canso.
In order to blast such large volumes of granite into the water, a tunnel system was used at the face of Cape Porcupine. Dynamite was placed inside the tunnels and the rock would rocket out of the mountain and land below. Approximately 125,000 tons of rock could come crashing to the ground with each blast. The rocks were then loaded into trucks and transported to the edge of the water where a bulldozer would nudge them to the floor of the strait. There were fourteen trucks used in all and they were loaded continuously.
Originally the construction project made the crest of the rock at the causeway 130 feet wide. Engineers discovered, however, that a more narrow crest would improve the strong resistance placed on it by storms and the ice movements in winter time. On the ocean floor the causeway was constructed to be about 860 feet wide or eight time the width of the crest. The construction called for the causeway to be shaped like an S. One of the biggest advantages of it is it can be widened on the ocean floor whenever necessary. The rigorous blasting and placing of granite rock continued for months and months. Finally on Friday Dec 10, 1954, the rock reached the Cape Breton side and Cape Breton Island was now permanently connected to mainland Nova Scotia. The deepest causeway in the world was now compete.
The next major construction feat was the building of the Canso Canal and lock system. The entire canal and berth for ships measures 3,445 feet in length. The actual canal itself measures 1,870 feet long by 80 feet wide. The canal consists of two gates as locks that raised when a ship passes through. It took approximately 98,000 cubic yards of concrete to build the entire canal.
The third major phase of the project was the construction of the bridge that welcomes travelers to and from the island. The bridge itself is 308 feet long and swings from its center to allow ships to pass through the canal and Strait of Canso. The swinging of the bridge is controlled from a cabin that is suspended from the top of the bridge.
The final pieces of the entire construction of the causeway were the erection of the fifty-seven light posts which light up the 3/4 mile causeway. The other phase was the building of the railway system that links mainland Nova Scotia with Cape Breton Island for the CNR. The paving of the causeway was the final piece of the puzzle and it commenced in May of 1955.
