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''This article is about the history of the former city of Dartmouth. For current information see Halifax Regional Municipality, Nova Scotia . Dartmouth, founded in 1750 , is a community and former city in the Canadian Province of Nova Scotia . Located on the eastern shore of Halifax Harbour , Dartmouth was a twin city to Halifax and was nicknamed the "City of Lakes." In 1996 the provincial government amalgamated all municipalities in Halifax County into a single tier regional government named Halifax Regional Municipality , commonly referred to as HRM. While Dartmouth, its neighbouring city of Halifax and the town of Bedford were disincorporated at this time, the former city forms part of the urban core of the larger HRM. Residents of Dartmouth are known as Dartmouthians . The city population before amalgamation was 65,741. TRANSPORTATION Dartmouth has been linked to Halifax by the oldest Salt Water Ferry service in North America , with the first crossing created in 1752 . During the early 1900s , ferries were used to shuttle between the downtown areas of Halifax and Dartmouth and carried both pedestrians and vehicles at the time. A Railway trestle was built across Halifax Harbour in the late 1800s to bring rail service to Dartmouth however it was destroyed by a storm, requiring the present railway connection built around Bedford Basin . In the early 1950s , construction started on the Angus L. Macdonald Bridge , one of Canada's longest suspension bridges, across Halifax Harbour. It opened in 1955 , ushering in an unprecedented development boom in Dartmouth which continues to this day. New subdivisions, shopping centres, and office complexes and industrial parks have been built in recent decades. A second traffic crossing, the A. Murray MacKay Bridge was opened in 1970 and the Highway 111 circumferential freeway was built around Dartmouth to Eastern Passage at this time. GEOGRAPHY Neighbourhoods in Dartmouth
MILITARY Dartmouth has been home to several Department Of National Defence installations:
HISTORY In 1750, the sailing ship ''Alderney'' arrived with 151 immigrants. Municipal officials at Halifax decided that these new arrivals should be settled on the opposite side of Halifax Harbour in an area known to the Mi'kmaq as "Boonamoogwaddy" or "Tomcod Ground". The community was later given the English name of Dartmouth in honour of William Legge, the first Earl of Dartmouth and a former nobleman in the court of Queen Anne . By 1752 , 53 families consisting of 193 people lived in the community. Dartmouth continued to develop slowly. In 1785 , at the end of the American Revolution, a group of Quakers from Nantucket arrived in Dartmouth to set up a whaling trade. They built homes, a Quaker meeting house, a wharf for their vessels and a factory to produce spermaceti candles and other products made from whale oil and carcasses. It was a profitable venture and the Quakers employed many local residents, but within ten years, around 1795 , the whalers moved their operation to Wales. Other families soon arrived in the village of Dartmouth. The Hartshorne family, Loyalists who arrived in 1785, received a grant that included land bordering present-day Portland, King and Wentworth Streets. Their meeting house still exists, and is believed to be the oldest standing building in Dartmouth By the early 1800s , Dartmouth consisted of about twenty-five families. Within twenty years, there were sixty houses, a church, gristmill, shipyards, saw mill, two inns and a bakery located near the harbour. In 1860 , Starr Manufacturing Company was situated near the Shubenacadie Canal. The factory employed over 150 workers and manufactured ice skates, cut nails, vault doors, iron bridge work and other heavy iron products. The Mott's candy and soap factory, employing 100, opened at Hazelhurst (near present-day Hazelhurst and Newcastle Streets). Consumer Cordage, a rope factory on Wyse Road (which still stands, and barely survived the Halifax Explosion, and is now a pub), offered work to over 300, and the Symonds Foundry employed a further 50 to 100 people. As the population grew, more houses were erected and new businesses established. Subdivisions such as Woodlawn, Woodside and Westphal developed on the outskirts of the town. Woodlawn was once part of the land purchased by a Loyalist, named Ebenezer Allen who became a prominent Dartmouth businessman. In 1786 , he donated land near his estate to be used as a cemetery. Many early settlers are interred in the Woodlawn cemetery including the remains of the "Babes in the Woods," two sisters who wandered into the forest and perished. Assorted Information
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