Centennial Trail itself is actually a fairly short shared use trail which runs not far out of Bridgewater either east or west. At its ends it connects to other trails which lead north, east and west. The eastern trail leads to Chester, 49.9 kilometers away, and eventually, via still more trails, to Halifax, 100 kilometers of trail distant.
Centennial Trail is actually part of the Trans Canada Trail, which is not yet complete in this area. Maps of the trail and the connecting trails can be found
HERE and
HERE and
HERE. A short description of the trail can be found at the last link.
At the bridge is a parking lot for easy access, and an outhouse. Though the trail is intended for hiking, cycling, horseback riding and cross-country skiing, this access point is rather inconvenient for bikers and horseback riders, as there are stairs leading from the parking lot up to the trail over the bridge. For hikers and joggers, however, it is a much used access point.
This large bridge was built in 1901 to connect the already existing tracks of the Nova Scotia Central at Bridgewater Junction just north of Bridgewater to the H&SW line under construction westward to Yarmouth. Just north of the bridge was the Davison Lumber Company's Upper Bridgewater Mill and a conveyor ran under the bridge to the mill's large sawdust burner located south of the bridge. The mill was washed out by floods in the 1930s leaving ruins which are visible to the north of the bridge. The bridge opened for full service in 1905. The bridge was abandoned by Canadian National in 1993 and now carries a recreational pathway.
From the H&SWR Digital Preservation Initiative
The date of 1901, above, doesn't seem correct, as the route from Bridgewater to Shelburne, and eventually to Yarmouth, was not under discussion until 1903, with construction beginning in 1904.
In any event, the fact that the bridge stands on cut stone piers dates it to that period. It is a seven span steel deck girder bridge located near the northern end of Bridgewater. It makes a curve as it passes over the river, the railway returning in the direction from which it came. On the eastern end of the bridge is a junction, from which the railway once lead northwest toward the Bay of Fundy and Middleton or northeast to Halifax. The Halifax & South Western Railway was long ago taken over by the Canadian National Railway, which abandoned the line and the bridge in 1993. It is now part of the
Centennial Trail Hiking and Biking trail, a Rails to Trails facility.