STANLEY BRIDGE RECONSTRUCTED

Highways and their many components represent an intrusion, by man, into the natural order prepared by nature, consequently they attempt to alter what nature has determined, over time, to be the most environmentally acceptable and stable topographical arrangement, for any given moment, in geological time. For this reason the maintenance of highway systems represents a continuous struggle by man, to preserve that which he has determined best meets his needs for the moment in human time. The two time frames are of course exponentially different.

The more significant of these maintenance struggles, as they have occurred over the years, have been recorded by the press and it is interesting to note the impact which their occurrence has had on the people of the community by the response of the community to the event.

Two of these events which have occurred, and involved Stanley Bridge, have been recorded and are reproduced as follows:

MR. MacKAY FIRST TO CROSS BRIDGE

The Guardian, Charlottetown, June 17, 1958.

MR. MacKAY FIRST TO CROSS BRIDGE Three weeks after it been closed to traffic automobiles and trucks began rolling over Stanley Bridge yesterday. The Constructors, Morrison and MacRae Ltd. worked twelve hours per day in an effort to complete this very important link in the highway between Borden and the National Park. Hon. George MacKay, Minister of Highways yesterday drove to Stanley Bridge to inspect the final stages of the work and (top picture) to offer to Mr. T.D. Morrison of Morrison and McRae his congratulations “for a job well done in record time.” Constructed of creosote piles with hardwood plank deck, the bridge spans a 120 foot opening in the swift flowing tidal river. Altogether five bents with seven piles to each bent were driven. Some of these piles were 77 feet in length. The Minister of Highways attaches particular significance to this project in view of its strategic location on one of the most important tourist roads of the Province. Only a quar—

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