Hillsborough River Bridge

The Hillsborough River Bridge is a bridge crossing the Hillsborough River estuary between Charlottetown and Stratford in Queens County, Prince Edward Island. The current road bridge, built in 1962, replaced a 1905 rail bridge crossing the same span which was known by the same name.

The first bridge was built by the Prince Edward Island Railway to complete a rail line from Charlottetown to Murray River. The single-lane bridge opened in 1905, and incorporated iron spans from two bridges in Miramichi, New Brunswick built about 30 years earlier. As rail service in the province was converted to standard gauge and heavier service, use of the bridge declined until it was deemed unsafe for all traffic in the 1950s.

As the Trans-Canada Highway project was planned in the 1950s, improving the crossing of the Hillsborough River was deemed essential. A new, improved 2-lane road bridge was built immediately upstream of the old rail bridge, opening in 1962. The bridge was widened to carry 4 lanes of traffic in 1995.

The Hillsborough River is a 30 km long and up to 1 km wide tidal inlet which empties into Charlottetown Harbour. During the 1800s, a seasonal passenger ferry service operated between the Charlottetown waterfront and Ferry Point on the opposite side. When the river was frozen in winter, horse-drawn sleighs would cross the ice. In 1905, the Prince Edward Island Railway (PEIR) constructed a railway bridge across the river, allowing for train travel to the eastern side.

The Prince Edward Island Railway had constructed a railway line from Southport (now part of Stratford) to Murray Harbour. Like all of the other lines on the Island at the time, the line was built using the 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) gauge. The last remaining link in this line involved crossing the Hillsborough River to Charlottetown.

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