Reporting by Christopher Cairns

BORDEN, PEI, Canada – Functional, fascinating and much photographed, the Confederation Bridge has reached its 10th birthday. The 12.9-kilometre bridge supporting two lanes of automobile traffic from Prince Edward Island to New Brunswick rates as a tourist attraction in its own right.

This “fixed link” across the sometimes stormy Northumberland Strait stands among the world’s longest, continuous, multi-span bridges. It’s the longest-ever above icy waters.

Pedestrians and bicyclists are banned from crossing, but shuttle services operate. Motorists must obey an 80-km-per-hour speed limit.

Always “a sight to behold”, the decade-old bridge had its origins all the way back in 1873 when PEI joined Canada as the smallest province. The national government vaguely promised a reliable link to the mainland, and Islanders needed a convenient way to cross the troublesome Strait.

The first people to ever cross by water would have been aboriginals in canoes. Then Europeans arrived. By the 1800s, scheduled sailings conveyed passengers and freight.

When ice blocked the ports, hardy mariners provided ice-boat services. They pushed and pulled small boats across stretches of ice and then rowed through frigid waters, carrying passengers, mail and some freight.

In 1917, the SS Prince Edward Island arrived to ferry railcars and autos from Borden to New Brunswick. Ferries persisted for decades as the politicians chattered about “a fixed link”.

Finally, on January 18, 1988, a plebiscite asked whether to build a tunnel or a bridge. Interest groups debated hard. Four days before the vote, 1,000 people attended a pivotal public meeting.

History professor David Weale often spoke for The Friends of the Island, a group harshly opposed to a fixed link. PEI’s people needed more time to make an informed decision, he said.

Critics lamented the loss of several hundred well-paid ferry-worker jobs. They feared that wind and ice might damage a fixed link, and that it could hinder fishing.

On December 2, 1992, government officials announced the decision to build a massive bridge. A developer needed to privately finance the job using bond markets. The link would reach from Borden across the Strait’s narrowest point to Cape Jourimain, NB.

Designers faced a daunting task to create a bridge many times safer than typical highway bridges and with a lifespan beyond 100 years, three times longer than most bridges.

Construction began in late 1993 and continued amid ice, wind and an unhelpful marine environment. The 5,000-worker project created a short-term economic bonanza. Progress on the approach roads, toll plazas and final structure, all costing Cdn $1 billion, continued until early 1997.

Workers assembled the bridge components in staging yards on land. Durable high-grade concrete and reinforcing steel went into the pre-cast components. Each section was transported and accurately placed. The longest span had 43 segments.

Most of the multi-span bridge stands 40 metres above water, but one span reaches 60 metres to permit ship traffic below. The 11-metre-wide bridge rests on 62 piers. It even has ice shields, 13-metre-tall cones that protect the piers from the push of moving ice.

A Danish-built, heavy-lift catamaran, the HLV Svanen, transported and placed the major components. The final tasks included paving the bridge deck, placing protective walls as wind barriers and installing navigational lights.

The Gateway Village, a new commercial and tourist site, appeared in Borden, and the bridge officially opened in May, 1997. But first, 75,000 people participated in a “bridge walk”. Thousands also gathered for a Bridge Fest party complete with music stars and talking politicians. Islanders also bid farewell to Borden’s ferry services.

In the Gateway Village, there’s a monument -- a five-metre-high bridge segment with sandstone boulders at one end to represent PEI and granite boulders at the other to signify New Brunswick. Nearby, concrete pedestals support bronze plaques, one of which honours three workers who died in construction mishaps.

Almost immediately, the bridge lured heavy tourist traffic to PEI. Later, this surge eased, but many visitors still make day-trips to the Island while touring Atlantic Canada.

The bridge facilitates farm and fishery exports. Potato production increased. So did the number of factories making French fries and potato chips. Truckers no longer face the queues and capacity limits of the ferry era, but high winds sometimes delay their bridge crossings.

Some people still fret that the Confederation Bridge has eroded PEI’s unique identity. But even these sceptics see it as an engineering marvel that draws visitors, bolsters industry and helps to unite Canada. Long just an idea, it morphed into a remarkable reality.

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