Dartmouth, Urban community in Halifax, Canada
Dartmouth is a settlement on the eastern shore of Halifax Harbour in Canada, today part of the Halifax municipality. The area is shaped by low hills and shallow basins that hold numerous water bodies, and stretches toward older forest and coastal strips farther east.
Settlement began in 1750 when British colonial officials laid out a village on Mi'kmaq land to support the military post on the western side of the bay. Over the following centuries the place grew into an industrial town with shipyards and factories before being merged into the enlarged city of Halifax in 1996.
The name references a harbor town in Devon and was chosen by founders interested in maritime tradition. Today this link matters less than the open access to waterfront paths and the many lakes, where neighbors launch canoes or kayaks directly from the shore.
Visitors arriving by car cross one of the two bridges over the harbor and find parking near the lake shores or in the residential neighborhoods. Walkers and cyclists can use the narrow paths along the waterfront, especially around the larger lakes in the center.
The Macdonald span and a second link direct traffic right over islands and sandbars that once divided the bay into natural harbors. These narrow bridges are often swept by icy wind in winter that nothing stops across the open water.
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