When Prince Edward Island joined the Dominion of Canada in 1873, they secured promises in that agreement which required the Canadian government to provide passenger service between the island and New Brunswick year-round. At first, they used a steamship that was unable to break the winter the ice. That did not really comply with the contract Canada had signed with the new province.
During much of the 19th century winter crossings were made by ice boats. These are boats that look like dorys but have runners on the bottom. The boats carried from 6-10 people but often the ice was too thick and the men passengers had to get out of the boat to tow the boat across the ice with straps. Can you imagine this?
On the other hand, in some places the ice was not thick enough to hold up the boat and the people, and then one of the men had to walk in front of the boat and grab hold of the bow just in case the ice broke through and he fell into the icy waters.
Some men would stay in the boat and use grappling hooks to pull the boat. Meanwhile, the other men would remain in the boat and use grappling hooks to pull the boat along. This process could take about 4 hours in the chilly winter. They even used hot bricks to keep the passengers warm for the 4 hours it might take.
These ice boats were used until 1915 when they started using ferries that could break the ice. Over the years the federal government had to pay a lot of money to subsidize the ferries, paying as much as $44 million in the 1990s. More and more it seemed to the federal government that they would be better off helping to finance a bridge. And that is what they did.
The Confederation Bridge carries the Trans-Canada Highway across the Northumberland Strait connecting Prince Edward Island to New Brunswick. It is 12.9 km (8 miles) long the longest bridge in Canada and the longest bridge in the world over ice-covered water. It took nearly 4 years to construct. The bridge is curved and most of it is 40 metres (131 ft.) above the water. The highway is 2 lanes.
The engineering of the Confederation Bridge was complicated by the fact that the water there freezes in winter. As well, in summer ice bergs could ram into the bridge at up to 4 knots causing severe damage. The ice bergs could come from either direction Therefore, measures had to be taken to protect the piers that held up the bridge.
Each component of the bridge was constructed in a specially designed fabrication facility. Once the component was built, a specialized trawler had to be used to move it from that facility to a pier. Then once it was placed on the pier the section was lifted and placed in position by a Dutch-built heavy lift catamaran. This vessel was huge. In fact, at the time it was probably the highest human made structure on P.E.I. at 100 m. (328 ft.). It could lift 3,000 tons.
To deflect icebergs from the bridge, steel-reinforced concrete deflection “cones” were built and strategically placed around each of the supports. Of course, they had to consider that most an ice berg was below the water surface.
The bridge was paid for by private developers and cost about $1.3 billion and the Canadian government agreed to pay them $44 million per year for 33 years, which was the same amount they had been paying to subsidize the ferries. That seems like a pretty good deal for Canada, but no one knows how much profit the developers made. They were private companies and did not have to tell. The developers collect the tolls until the contract expires, but have had large maintenance expenses. I remember that when we first crossed the bridge many years ago, not long after the bridge had been built, we noticed that it was already necessary to reapply asphalt which had difficulty sticking to the bridge on account of all of the salt water and ice on the bridge.
To me the most important part was the beauty of the bridge. Almost as beautiful as lighthouses!
