Keystone Bridge Cache Traditional Cache
Arvense: Time to retire this one :-(
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(regular)
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FTF: bassmig
Tidnish Keystone Bridge cache is located off Route 366, Tidnish
Bridge, Cumberland Co, NS. The cache is near a cut stone bridge
that can be found by following the abandoned railway bed trail that
runs between the Tidnish Bridge Visitor Centre and Tidnish Dock.
Just beyond the Keystone bridge is a newer Pedestrian Suspension
Bridge crossing the Tidnish river. Beyond the suspension bridge
parts of the trail become overgrown.
The Cache
The cache is a small camed peanut butter jar. The cache contains
some swag, a TB and a toonie for Timmies as FTF prize. There used
to be another cache just down the trail,now archived: 'GC8C36 -
Ship Railway Rendezvous'. I love this area and decided it needed
another cache!
Winter Warning : The cache is not winter friendly, if there
is more than trace amounts of snow, it will be very difficult to
find.
CAUTION: THE KEYSTONE BRIDGE IS VERY NEAR THE TRAIL, CHILDREN
& PARENTS SHOULD BE VERY CAUTIOUS NEAR THE TOP OF THE
BRIDGE.
History - The Chignecto Marine Transport
Railway
Tidnish Keystone Bridge is valued as evidence of one of Nova
Scotia's most ambitious engineering projects. The Chignecto Marine
Transport Railway was the dream of H.C.G. Ketchum, the project's
principle designer and supporter. Born in New Brunswick in 1839,
Ketchum was a proven and able engineer. It was Ketchum's belief
that "ship-railways" were the way of the future and the only
reasonable solution to the problems of nineteenth-century
transportation. As a result of his proposals, the Chignecto Marine
Transport Railway Company was incorporated in 1882. However, it
wasn't until 1888, when the company had found sufficient financial
backing that the railroad construction began.
Ketchum's project was, simply put, designed to lift ships out of
the water, place them on a specially designed railroad cradle and,
by means of two huge locomotives, pull them across the Isthmus of
Chignecto, returning them to the water on the opposite shore;
thereby avoiding the extra cost and time involved in sailing around
the mainland of Nova Scotia or in digging a canal through the
isthmus.
The construction of the railway was beset with difficulties and
challenges from the outset. The bogs along the line had to be dug
out and refilled, the rails used were the heaviest ever used in a
railway up to that time and the hydraulic lifts which were used at
each terminus presented many new problems. As well, recurrent
delays attributable to financier's wariness, inadequate engineering
estimates and the constant political pressure brought to bear by
shipping companies opposed to the ship-railway, combined to bring
construction to an end in 1891.
When the work was stopped approximately three quarters of the
railway had been completed. The basin at Fort Lawrence had been
completed, approximately twenty kilometers of track had been laid
and the specially designed cradles and locomotives were almost
ready for delivery.
The Chignecto Marine Transport Railway was undoubtedly the most
ambitious engineering project in Nova Scotia's history. While there
is still a considerable amount of material remaining at the site of
the railway, much of the stone work and rail has been removed. The
property at Fort Lawrence Terminus and most of the track bed
stretching approximately twenty-three kilometers across the isthmus
is privately owned. The remaining property, at Tidnish, has been
expropriated by the Department of Natural Resources for use as a
picnic park.
Tidnish Bridge is still intact and located along the Henry Ketchum
Trail. This four kilometre hiking trail follows the abandoned
railway bed between Tidnish Bridge Visitor Centre and Tidnish Dock
Provincial Park.
Source: Provincial Heritage Program property file, no. 37, 1747
Summer Street, Halifax, NS.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
ng gur onfr bs n ynetr gerr pbirerq jvgu oenapuf.
Treasures
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