Tidnish Keystone Bridge

The 19th century Tidnish Keystone Bridge can be viewed from the Sunrise Trail/Hwy 366 bridge over the Tidnish River in the little village of Tidnish Bridge. The stone bridge was once a railway span and is made from the same sandstone as the Nova Scotia legislature in Halifax and the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa. The Keystone Bridge was part of a railway that was being built by Henry Ketchum, a civil engineer. His idea was to save the shipping industry time and money by hauling ocean going ships across the isthmus of Chignecto (the marshland that separates New Brunswick and Nova Scotia) from the Northumberland Strait to the Bay of Fundy by railway instead of them having to sail around Nova Scotia. Construction began in 1888 on what would become the Chignecto Ship Railway but ended just a few short years later in 1891 when money ran out. Ketchum tried to raise more funds but he died suddenly in 1896. The abandoned rail bed Ketchum began now enables hikers to experience the beauty of the Tantramar Marsh. It crosses the Keystone Bridge and also a newer bridge, the Henry G.C. Ketchum Memorial Suspension Bridge (inset on left).