The lands that are now New Brunswick went back and forth between French and English rule.  During the time of American independence, these lands belonged to England.

Saint John, New Brunswick is Canada’s oldest incorporated city.  The city began in 1783 as loyalists moved north following the US Revolution.  

Benedict Arnold, infamous American traitor, went to England after escaping capture and joined His Majesty’s Service. In time, he and his wife came to Saint John, New Brunswick and he became a merchant. They lived in Saint John for six years but were not well revered.

Martello Tower was built during the War of 1812.  It had a low entrance and irregular stair measurements as a protective measure. The tower was attacked by the United States because it was a place nearby where the Americans could attack England. (The section on top was added during World War II.)

(Editorial comment – It was so very strange throughout this trip to hear about incidences where the US and Canada were attacking each other.  I know it was a long time ago and Canada was British Canada at the time, but the whole idea just doesn’t compute!)

Saint John population increased between 1840-50s  as many people came from Ireland during the potato famine.  

In the mid 1800s, Saint John became the third largest ship building town in Canada.  

We were told that the owners of this 1910-11 house had been on a trip abroad buying furniture.  The furniture sank on the Titanic. I don’t know what happened to the people.

Rockwood Park was designed by Calvert Vaux, one of the designers of New York City’s Central Park. 

The park was formed around Libby Lake where local man Charles Gorman set a world speed skating record.  He competed for Canada in the 1924 and 1928 Olympics.

New Brunswick is the only official bilingual province.  Quebec’s official language is French while the rest are official English language provinces.

The McDonald’s in this part of Canada used to have McLobster!

This area is known as the Reversing Falls Rapids.  It is where the mouth of the Saint John river connects with the Bay of Fundy.  

 Most tides throughout the world adjust about three feet.  The highest tides in the world are here. 

The Saint John River usually goes towards the ocean except at high tide. The tidal change can be 28 feet in the river and 40 feet in the Bay of Fundy.  The result is that the river actually falls fifteen feet backwards.  Levels of brackishness can be found 70 miles upriver.

Power production turbines were installed and then destroyed by the tidal action. Work continues on a new design that can handle the extreme tides.

A 100 year old pulp mill is across the river.

It was very difficult to build bridges across the gorge.  Three attempts failed either during construction or after the fact.  The bridge in the picture was built in the early 1900s.

We were not there during the tidal change.  It would have been interesting to see!

We boarded the Nieuw Statendam once more and set sail to our next port – Halifax, Nova Scotia