Cable ferry

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Coin operated cable ferry at Espevær in Bømlo, Norway

A cable ferry or chain ferry is a means of water transportation by which a ferry or other boat is guided and in many cases propelled across a river or other larger body of water by means of cables or chains connected to both shores. Ferries of this type are also called punts, especially in Australian English, and in Africa they are often called pontoons, referring to the flat-bottomed type of vessel, but this is also used for ferries without chains and cables.

There are three types of cable ferry. One is the reaction ferry, which solely uses the power of the river to tack across the current; another is the powered cable ferry which uses an auto or diesel engine to wind itself across the river. The third type, now fast disappearing, is the hand-operated type, such as the Stratford-upon-Avon Chain Ferry in the UK and the Saugatuck Chain Ferry in Michigan, USA.

Early manifestations of cable ferries often used rope or steel chains, which were largely replaced by stronger and more durable wire cable by the late 19th century.

Ferries are common where there is little other water-borne traffic which could get snagged in the cable or chains, where the water may be too shallow for other options, or where the river current is too strong to permit the safe crossing of a ferry service not attached to the riverbanks. Alignment of the platform at each end of the journey is automatic and, especially for vehicle ferries, safer than a free-moving ferry might be in bad conditions.

1 History
2 Worldwide
3 See also
4 References
5 External links

[edit] History

Cable Ferries at Gondola Point on the Kennebecasis River

Cable ferries have probably been used to cross rivers and similar bodies of water since before recorded history. Examples of ferry routes using this technology are known to date back to the 13th century (Hampton Ferry in England).

Cable ferries were particularly prominent in the era of canals during the 19th and early 20th centuries in Europe and North America. Such devices allowed the transfer of canal barges continually from one canal to another across a river in the presence of a substantial transverse flow. A cable ferry across the Delaware River constructed in 1831 allowed large-scale the transportation of coal from the Lehigh Valley directly to New York City via the Morris Canal without reloading of the canal boats.

Cable ferries were also particularly prominent in early transportation in the Sacramento Delta of California. At one time, cable ferries were a primary means of automobile transportation in New South Wales in Australia. In Tasmania, for a century before 1934, the Risdon Punt at Hobart was the only fixed method of crossing the Derwent River within Hobart city limits.

In the early 1900's, an underwater cable ferry that William Pitt (Canada) designed was installed on the Kennebecasis River near Saint John, New Brunswick in Canada.^[1]. There are now eight cable ferries along the Saint John River system in southern New Brunswick.

Cable ferries are the usual way for cars and trucks to cross the Murray River in South Australia

Cable ferries continue to be useful means of water transportation in the 21st century. Most of the road crossings of the Murray River in South Australia are cable ferries operated by the state government. The cables are anchored to the shore at both ends, and the ferry propels itself along the cables by diesel engines pulling the cables. The platforms at the ends can be moved up or down according to the water level.

In Canada, a cable ferry is proposed to transport automobiles across the Ottawa River in Ontario. There are several in BC: two on the Fraser, one a Lytton, another at Big Bar. There are three more on Arrow Lakes. A suspended cable ferry worked until the 1980's in Boston Bar. A small seasonal cable ferry carries cars across the Rivière des Prairies from Laval, Quebec (Sainte-Dorothée neighbourhood) to Île Bizard (part of Montreal). Dozens of cable ferries operated on the Columbia River in the US northwest, though most have been rendered obsolete by bridges. A suspended cable ferry for railway cars worked the American River in Northern California.

In the fishing village of Tai O on Lantau Island, Hong Kong, a cable boat service (橫水渡) was available across the Tai O River, before a bascule bridge was built.

[edit] Worldwide

Current cable and chain ferries include the the following.

[edit] Australia

Wisemans Ferry across the Hawkesbury River in New South Wales
Mortlake Ferry across the Parramatta River in Sydney, New South Wales
Twelve of the crossings listed in Murray River crossings are cable ferries

[edit] Canada

Gondola Point Ferry across the Kennebecasis River in New Brunswick
LaHave Cable Ferry across the LaHave River in Nova Scotia
Little Narrows Cable Ferry across the Little Narrows of Whycocomagh Bay in Nova Scotia
Englishtown Ferry across the mouth of St. Anns Bay in Nova Scotia
Harrop Ferry across Kootenay Lake in British Columbia