The native Mi’kmaq people used the isthmus as a transit point between the Atlantic Ocean and Bras d’Or Lake (they obviously didn’t call it that thousands of years ago) as it was only a kilometre long. Their lightweight canoes could easily be carried on their shoulders and brought from the ocean to the lake and vice versa.
The Portuguese established a fort there called San Pedro in the sixteenth century but abandoned it. The French explorer Nicholas Denys restored it in 1650 and called it Saint Pierre, built skids over land to haul boats across the two bodies of water with oxen, and traded furs with the natives.
Back then, Cape Breton Island was called Îsle Royale and the place was fortified in 1713. The invading British destroyed it in 1745, but was rebuilt by the French three years later. It was finally evacuated and surrendered to the British in 1758 when the French lost Louisbourg Fortress.
The overland skids stayed until 1854, when the construction for the canal began, the canal was completed in 1869. Today, it consists of two locks and a rotating bridge, serving only pleasure craft.
