City of the Sea

Although Canada's three oceanic coastlines boast dozens of harbours of all sizes, there are only two that were perfectly framed by nature to become major seaports, handling the commerce of the world in all its infinite variety and astonishing quantity.  All others must yield to Halifax and Vancouver in this respect, because the natural harbours of those two cities are of such great size.  And of the two, Halifax is far the older.

Halifax is located on a gigantic natural harbour, deep, wide, long, and beautifully sheltered.  The two entrance channels are separated by McNab's Island (1).  Coming on up the harbour, you pass Point Pleasant (2) which separates the main body of water from the narrow finger called the Northwest Arm.  Both McNab's Island and Point Pleasant were equipped by the British Army with heavy-duty gun batteries.  Beyond those, the huge guns of the Citadel (3), high up on Citadel Hill, effectively barred any enemy from entering the Narrows (4), the channel separating Halifax from Dartmouth.  Beyond all those defences, natural and human, lies the deep expanse of water called Bedford Basin (5).  It was here that huge convoys of ships assembled during both World Wars before sailing to Britain with food, fuel, weapons and ammunition.  If you had asked Mother Nature to create the perfect haven for shipping, she could hardly have done better than this!

To say that Halifax's defences were formidable is to understate the case by a wide margin.  It's no surprise that this city and harbour played a continuous and significant role in both the military and the commercial history of Canada.

When you walk through downtown Halifax, this history is all around you.  There are all the old stone warehouses, the wooden and stone churches, the cemeteries, the numerous monuments, and towering above all the massive Citadel on top of Citadel Hill.  Since I am staying right in downtown on this trip, it was a perfect excuse to skip the usual procedure of renting a car and just work with my two feet and -- where necessary -- the excellent public transit.

The historic area is all crammed into the eight narrow blocks between Brunswick Street (on the eastern edge of Citadel Hill) and Water Street (on the harbour).  On a map it looks like easy walking turf, but don't kid yourself.  The whole city slopes steeply uphill from the harbour -- and I do mean steeply.  The only parallel I've ever seen to it in Canada is St. John's, Newfoundland.  When I left my hotel on the corner of Hollis and Sackville Streets, and started uphill, I only had six blocks to go up to Brunswick, and by the time I got there I was looking down onto the roof of the 9-storey hotel! (the last white building on the left side of the street).

Turning north on Brunswick, I walked along to the corner of Carmichael, where the Halifax Town Clock has kept excellent time since 1803.  Behind the clock, that innocent looking green slope conceals the massive gun batteries and ramparts of the Halifax Citadel.

At Duke Street I turned east again and crept (rather than walked) back down the steep hill all the way down to Water Street.  Halifax has done a magnificent job of preserving its waterfront area for public use instead of shamefully letting it get eaten up by nearly solid walls of condominiums.  Not naming any names.  There's an extensive Harbour Boardwalk with restaurants, pubs, snack stands, numerous sightseeing cruises on offer, and more.  Some of the businesses are housed in genuine heritage buildings, and there are more to see throughout the city.  Halifax is definitely modern in feeling, but heritage is still big business here.  Buildings are regularly repaired -- examples in these two pictures being the City Hall and an old bank building.

Old buildings are also repurposed.  One of the most imaginative is the modern Delta Barrington hotel.  Here's the hotel's front, on Barrington Street...

...and here's the back, facing Granville Street, a block full of heritage buildings on both sides.

This block of Granville, reserved for pedestrians only, is actually the edge of the Historic Properties preservation area, a major highlight of the city.  The Historic Properties district was originally an area of numerous warehouses containing goods offloaded from ships in the harbour.  These fine old stone and wood buildings now contain numerous upscale shops (some making their merchandise on site) as well as a fine selection of eateries and drinkeries, or (as a friend of mine used to say) "swilling stations".  Here are a couple of photo highlights:

While we are in the harbour area, let's head a bit farther south for a look at the boardwalk...

...and this interesting clock tower.  The tower is plainly modern.  The clock within it is a different matter.  It was built in 1767 in London (England) and installed in a clock tower in the Halifax Naval Dockyard in 1772.  In 1941 the clock was moved to a new building within the Dockyard.  When that building in turn was demolished in the 1990s, the new tower you see here was built and the clock installed in its third home.  It still has to be wound up twice weekly, and still keeps time faithfully (accurate within a minute a week), at the ripe old age of 248 years.

Behind the clock is the ferry terminal.  The harbour ferries are an integral part of the Halifax-Dartmouth Metro Transit network, and buses interconnect with the ferries at all three terminals.  After lunch on a waterfront patio in the Historic Properties, I hopped on the ferry for my traditional harbour cruise.  Look at the prices of the commercial cruises, and then consider the $5.00 round trip cash fare for the ferries.

Previously, I've always taken the ferry northeast to Alderney Gate near downtown Dartmouth.  This time, I tried the ferry to Woodside, much farther south, and discovered that this crossing gives far better views of the city of Halifax from the water.  This was the best picture I got.  It has a little of everything: historic buildings, modern buildings, the boardwalk, and straight up the hill on Carmichael Street to the Town Clock, with the Citadel looming behind it.

The Woodside Terminal in the south end of Dartmouth is, frankly, not in a very interesting area.  It's convenient to several large industrial facilities and the Dartmouth General Hospital, but that's about it.  However, for anyone heading to the intriguing Fisherman's Cove development farther south, it's the ideal place to transfer to the # 60 bus south, and much quicker than taking the same bus all that extra distance from Alderney Gate.  Both ferries run at least every 30 minutes all day long and into the evening.

Right beside the Woodside Terminal, though, is this fascinating sight, which I have never seen before.  It's a facility for training oil-rig workers in the use of the escape pods that are now used on rigs in case of fire or explosion.  Seeing that certainly made the trip worthwhile!

Back in the city, and by now suffering from a notable case of "tourist feet", I headed back to the hotel for a well-earned afternoon siesta.  But by dinnertime, I was back out on the boardwalk again, and no wonder!  Halifax's waterfront is a simply irresistible "people place", and one of the biggest reasons why I love to visit this city again and again.