The name Canso came from the Mi’kmaq word kamsook which means “opposite the lofty cliff”, referring to the steep cliffs of Chedabucto Bay, or possibly the heights of Isle Madame, 13 km to the north of the town. This area was identified in 1686 as Canseau on Jean-Baptiste-Louis Franquelin’s first map of Acadia, though a later map referred to the Straits of Canceaux,a slightly different spelling. In 1749, Surveyor General Charles Morris introduced the curent spelling.
The town of Canso (shown below) lies east of the Canso Causway at the tip of a peninsula jutting from the Nova Scotia mainland
Port Hastings was settled in the early 1800s, this community was originally known as Plaister Cove, and was renamed Port Hastings in 1871 for Nova Scotia’s lieutenant governor at that time. Above scenic St Georges Bay is the 260 metre (850 ft) high Creignish Mountain.
Port Hawkesbury – Canso colourful sunset
Just east of Port Hastings and the cuaseway is Port Hawkesbury, which has a commercial and recreational harbour, a strong retail cluster adjacent the Trans-Canada #104, and a number of wind turbines on the ridge above the town.
The town was designated as the spot for a connecting bridge that was commissioned to be built in 1902, but was never completed. During World War II, the Strait was shipping shortcut to the Atlantic. When Newfoundland joined Confederation in 1948, the issue of connecting the new province to the rest of Canada, required a connecting bridge. Engineering studies suggested that ice in the Strait would quickly damage any bridge and construction began on a causeway in 1952 and was completed in 1955 at a cost of $22,000,000.
The Canso Causeway makes Port Hastings the connecting point between Highway 104 on the mainland and highway 105 on Cape Breton. There is a Nova Scotia Tourism Centre on the north side of the causeway, just west of the traffic circle.
Port Hastings – Nova Scotia Tourist Information
Canso Causeway
This S-shaped `1causeway links the island of Cape Breton with the Nova Scotia mainland, across the Canso Strait. The causeway is 1,385 metres long, and fills the Canso Strait to a depth of 65 metres (213 ft) making it the deepest causeway in the world. Its crown is 40 m (130 ft) wide and its base is 244 m (800 ft) wide, and its construction required just over 10 million tons of rock for its construction.
You can circumnavigate Cape Breton Island by boat, taking the 24 m (79 ft) wide and 570 m (1,870 ft) long Canso Canal. This c ana is located at the eastern end of the causeway to allow ship traffic to transit the Strait of Canso. The Canso Canal Bridge is a 94 m (308 ft) swing bridge for both the road and single-track railway line over the canal.
The causeway prevents ice from entering the Strait making a large year-round navigable 16 km (10 mi) long harbour. A navigation lock allows the passage of sea-going traffic is part of a canal that is crossed by a swing bridge at the northern end of the causeway, which enables the largest ships to pass through, as a shortcut from the Gulf of St Lawrence to the Atlantic.
See: Canso Causeway Operations
At the south end of the Causeway is a large quarry and (most often) ships loading them for use in various construction projects all over. YOuc an see the quarry and ships from Port hawkesburty and Port Hastings or as you approach the Causeway from the south, taking the long downslope on the highway.
Port Hastings – Freighter loading rock and gravel