Cape Breton Home of our Hearts
North Sydney (2001 pop.: 6,775) is a community in Nova Scotia‘s Cape Breton Regional Municipality.
Located on the north side of Sydney Harbour, along the eastern coast of Cape Breton Island, North Sydney is an important port in Atlantic Canada as it is the western terminus of the Marine Atlantic ferry service. It acts as the marine link for the Trans-Canada Highway to the island of Newfoundland, which is why North Sydney’s nickname is called The Gateway To Newfoundland.
Marine Atlantic ferries currently operate from North Sydney’s terminal to the ports of Port aux Basques and Argentia. The company is one of the largest employers in the area.
History
North Sydney emerged as a major shipbuilding centre in the early 19th century building many brigs and brigantines for the English market and later moving on to larger Barques and, in 1851, the full rigged ship Lord Clarendon, the largest wooden ship ever built in Cape Breton. Wooden shipbuilding declined in the 1860s but the same decade saw the arrival of increasing numbers of steamships drawn to North Sydney for bunker coal. By 1870 it was the fourth largest port in Canada dealing in ocean-going vessels, drawn for coal and due to the fact that The Western Union cable office had been established here in 1875. The railroad came to Cape Breton Island in 1891. At this time there were 2,513 people in North Sydney, compared to 2,417 in Sydney.
In 1898 North Sydney was chosen by the Reid-Newfoundland Company as the Canadian mainland terminal for a ferry service to Newfoundland; in June of that year the SS Bruce sailed from Port Aux Basques, it was the first ship to make that run.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Sydney,_Nova_Scotia
Old Photos and Memories of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia 