Sydney is the largest city on Cape Breton Island in the north of Nova Scotia. Its industry began from coal mining in the eighteenth century by the French, who also built the Louisbourg Fortress. The steel industry developed two centuries later and was the city’s bastion of economic activity until the Second World War.
Many Loyalists moved to Nova Scotia after the American Revolutionary War and they were joined by Highland Scots. Their accent doesn’t show their Scottish heritage, but you’ll soon realize it when you head deeper inland.
The Cossit House has been restored so it looks as it did when it was built in 1787 by Rev. Ranna Cossit – the first Anglican minister in the city. St. George’s Church, built the same year as the Cossit House, is one of the oldest Anglican churches in the country. St. Patrick’s Church, built from the stones of the ruined Louisbourg Fortress, has been turned into a museum of history on Cape Breton Island.
Sydney has a naval base, and is was founded by a distinguished naval engineer Joseph Frederick Wallet Desbarres. He is the second-most famous British surveyor after Captain Cook. He fought in the Seven Years’ War, helped capture Louisbourg, participated in the capitulation of Quebec, and charted Nova Scotia. He founded Sydney, became Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island, and died in Halifax at age 102.
