Port Hawkesbury and Port Hastings

Port Hawkesbury is a town of 3,200 people (2016) on the southwestern end of Cape Breton Island, on the north shore of the Strait of Canso. Port Hastings is an unincorporated community about up Highway 104 from Port Hawkesbury.

Understand
Port Hawkesbury was founded as Ship Harbour (after the harbour upon which it is located) and is largely a service centre for western Cape Breton Island with many of its residents working in large industries in an industrial park in the adjacent community of Point Tupper. The community is named after Admiral Sir Edward Hawke.

Port Hastings is at the east end of the Canso Causeway, the link connecting Cape Breton Island with the mainland. It used to be known as Plaster Cove.

History
Port Hawkesbury built ships for the timber export trade in the early and mid 19th-century. Schooners and fishing boats were also built for the inshore and banks fishery. The port further developed in the 19th century when railway connections arrived. The construction of the Canso Causeway increased the shelter capacity of the deepwater port leading to further growth in shipping of bulk commodities and the establishment of several heavy industries such as the pulp mill.

The Inverness and Richmond Railway was built from coal mines in Inverness to a loading dock at Point Tupper in 1901. With the opening of the Canso Causeway in 1955, Port Hastings became a railway junction after the Truro-Sydney mainline of Canadian National Railways (CNR) was diverted from the railcar ferry terminals at Mulgrave and Point Tupper. The CNR line to Inverness was abandoned in the 1980s, although the Truro-Sydney mainline continues to operate as the Cape Breton and Central Nova Scotia Railway.

Climate
Precipitation is high, with the fall and winter being the wettest time of year and summer being the driest. Winters are cold, snowy and stormy with frequent snowstorms. Summer is the most pleasant time of year, with significantly less precipitation and warm temperatures.

By car
Port Hastings is the location of the interchange between between Highway 104 and Highway 105, which is located east of the Canso Causeway., which separate the mainland on the west side of the causeway from Cape Breton on the east side of the causeway. Traffic west of Port Hastings on Highway 104 and traffic east of Port Hastings on Highway 105 are on the Trans-Canada Highway. Highway 105 terminates at Highway 104, while Highway 104 continues in Cape Breton on the south side of Cape Breton.

The Port Hastings Rotary traffic circle is an important interchange between Highway 104, Highway 105, Trunk 19 and Trunk 4 several hundred metres east of the Canso Canal Bridge. There are several motels and gas stations and a tourist information centre at the traffic circle.

By bus

 * Operates a route between Halifax and Sydney including stops in Dartmouth, Halifax Airport, Truro, New Glasgow, Antigonish, Port Hawkesbury, and North Sydney.
 * Travel to Port Hawkesbury from the following destinations involving same day transfers is as follows:
 * From Moncton with a transfer in Truro.
 * From Charlottetown with transfers in Amherst and in Truro.
 * From Bathurst, Campbellton, Edmundston, Fredericton, Miramichi, and Saint John with transfers in Moncton and Truro.