A. Murray MacKay Bridge

About

The A. Murray MacKay Bridge, known locally as "the new bridge", is a suspension bridge linking the Halifax Peninsula with Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, and opened on July 10, 1970. It is one of two suspension bridges crossing Halifax Harbour. Its counterpart, the Angus L. Macdonald Bridge, was completed in 1955. The bridge carries on average 52,000 vehicle crossings per day, and is part of Nova Scotia Highway 111. As of January 3, 2022, the toll charge to cross for regular passenger vehicles was $1.25 cash, or $1.00 with the MACPASS electronic toll system. Larger vehicles had higher tolls proportional to the number of axles. Tolls were removed as of March 14, 2025. The A. Murray MacKay Bridge is the only harbour bridge that permits semi-trailers and large trucks. Pedestrians and bicycles are not permitted on the A. Murray MacKay Bridge; they may instead use dedicated lanes on the Angus L. Macdonald Bridge. The Macdonald Bridge, the older of the two suspension bridges spanning Halifax Harbour, opened in 1955. By the early 1960s, growing traffic between Halifax and Dartmouth prompted the government to hire Montreal consulting firm Pratley and Dorton to carry out a study on the construction of an additional bridge (or bridges). Their report, the Halifax Area Bridge Study, was submitted in 1963 and explored two possible sites for a new cross-harbour bridge. The provincial government and the Halifax-area municipalities could not reach agreement on which site was best, so the province asked the bridge commission to make a decision. The site at the Narrows was subsequently chosen. Political controversy preceded construction of the MacKay Bridge when the city of Halifax expropriated residents from the black community of Africville near the Halifax abutment.

Adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA). Photography via Wikimedia Commons.