Mira Road, Nova Scotia
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Mira Road (2001 pop.: 1,578) is a community in Nova Scotia's Cape Breton Regional Municipality.
Located east of Sydney, the Mira Road was originally built in the 1700's by French military forces from Fortress Louisbourg. It was used for commercial purposes to move goods between Louisbourg and Spanish Bay, which includes present-day Sydney Harbour. The "Grande Chemin de Mire" was reported to be wide enough for two carriages to pass, a notable achievement in colonial France. After French military forces were defeated and expelled from the area, Britain moved to consolidate it with the colony of Nova Scotia. Settlement in the outlying areas of Sydney only began after the American Revolution when New England Loyalists moved to southern Cape Breton Island as refugees. They populated the area along the Mira Road and began farming in the substandard soil, eventually creating a community named "Mira Road."
More recent housing developments in the 1970's saw much of the farmland subdivided into housing lots and the area became a bedroom community of the City of Sydney. The Island's newest Regional Hospital was built in the area in the 1980's and now services much of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality.