The Strait of Canso (also Gut of Canso or Canso Strait, also called Straits of Canceau or Canseaux until the early 20th century) is a strait located in the province of

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

, Canada. It divides the

Nova Scotia peninsula The Nova Scotia peninsula is a peninsula on the Atlantic coast of North America. Location The Nova Scotia peninsula is part of the province of Nova Scotia, Canada and is connected to the neighbouring province of New Brunswick through the Is ...

from Cape Breton Island. It is a long thin channel approximately 27 kilometres long and averaging 3 kilometres wide (1 km at its narrowest). The strait connects

Chedabucto Bay Chedabucto Bay is a large bay on the eastern coast of mainland Nova Scotia between the Atlantic Ocean and the Strait of Canso next to Guysborough County. At the entrance to Chedabucto Bay is the community of Canso at the head is the community ...

on the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

to St. George's Bay on the

Northumberland Strait The Northumberland Strait (French: ''détroit de Northumberland'') is a strait in the southern part of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence in eastern Canada. The strait is formed by Prince Edward Island and the gulf's eastern, southern, and western sh ...

, a sub basin of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The strait is extremely deep (200+ feet) with two major communities at Port Hawkesbury on the eastern side facing Mulgrave on the western side, both ports. The strait is crossed by the

Canso Causeway The Canso Causeway (''Cabhsair Chanso'' in Gaelic) is a rock-fill causeway crossing the Strait of Canso, connecting Cape Breton Island by road to the Nova Scotia peninsula. Its crest thickness is , carrying the two vehicle traffic lanes o ...

for vehicular and rail traffic, opened in 1955. The

Canso Canal The Canso Canal is a short canal located in Nova Scotia, Canada. Canal location The Canso Canal is in the Strait of Canso, on the eastern side of the Canso Causeway, a rock-fill causeway which opened in 1955 to carry a 2-lane highway and a si ...

allows ships to pass through the causeway, and this can accommodate any vessel capable of transiting the St. Lawrence Seaway. An account of early settlement in the area is given in the letters of local resident Henry Nicholas Paint (1830-1921), Member of Parliament for Richmond county and merchant, whose father Nicholas secured valuable land grants and settled in a stone-built house at Belle Vue in 1817. Port Hawkesbury, at first known as Ship Harbour, emerged as a shipbuilding and boatbuilding port on the Strait in the 19th century with firms such as

H.W. Embree and Sons Henry W. Embree and Sons, Boatbuilders, was a boat yard in Port Hawkesbury, Nova Scotia, that operated from 1859 to 1948. The youngest son of a boatbuilding family, Henry Embree established his own boat yard between Brown and Pitt Streets, on the P ...

producing distinctive fishing boats that came to be known as "Canso Boats" after the Strait.

References

External links

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Strait of Canso - Economic Development Studies
(online collection of studies of the Strait of Canso area) {{Coord, 45, 35, 50, N, 61, 22, 38, W, display=title, region:CA_type:waterbody_source:dewiki_scale:250000 Canso Landforms of Antigonish County, Nova Scotia Landforms of Guysborough County, Nova Scotia Landforms of Inverness County, Nova Scotia Landforms of Richmond County, Nova Scotia Straits of the Atlantic Ocean Geographic regions of Nova Scotia