Halifax is a chubby peninsula that sticks down into a deep natural harbour. If you want to get there from the Dartmouth side you've got to get over that water. If you have a car, then your only way across is on one of the two bridges, the Macdonald and the more northerly MacKay.
Commuters can depart from one of two ferry terminals for the lovely 10 or 15 minute trip to the Halifax terminal. On the above map the dashed lines show the ferry routes. The ferry is part of the transit system so your ticket gets you a transfer for the bus.
Driving across one of the bridges at rush hour can be a real experience ! There are five toll lanes that at rush hour filter into two bridge lanes. That is five congested lanes merging into two.
Since everyone is used to the routine, the merging is smoothy done. You seldom hear honking. You frequently see hand-waving "gestures to "go ahead". And then that person waves someone else in. We've all been there so we all know what it's like. It's a daily demonstration of "paying it forward".
I generally cross via the Macdonald bridge. The view is marvellous -- a dangerous situation for someone with raging ADD. "Oh look at cruise ship!" "Look at the cute tugboat !" "Look at the ship in floating dry dock !" "Is that a submarine?".
Can you believe I've never walked across the bridge ? It's on my radar for this weekend as naval vessels from all over the world will be in the harbour as part of our navy's 100th anniversary.
The Queen is coming on Tuesday to check out the fleet. I can just imagine her using her cute, slo mo queenly wave to gesture my car ahead of her limo as we roll by each other coming out of the toll booths. I'll smile and nod by head and wave her through. "Age before beauty" as they say ...
It is much fun to walk the MacDonald bridge.. enjoy! I always used to get confused about the bridge names until a native Haligonian told me "MacKay, far away" :)
ReplyDelete(p.s. Some people avoid the bridges and drive 'round Bedford way...)