page_title: Ontario Highway 7A
section_title: Development
hierarchical_section_title: Ontario Highway 7A / History / Development
caption_attribution_description: English: The floating Scugog Bridge between Port Perry and Scugog Island, circa 1855. The floating bridge was buried into the structure of a causeway across the lake built in the late-1800s.
context_page_description: King's Highway 7A, commonly referred to as Highway 7A, is a provincially maintained highway in the Canadian province of Ontario that serves as a bypass of Highway 7. The highway begins in the community of Manchester, where Highway 7 is concurrent with Highway 12, and travels east through Port Perry, Nestleton Station, Bethany and Cavan, ending at Highway 115 southwest of Peterborough. From there, Highway 7 can be reached via Highway 115 northbound. Near its midpoint the route is concurrent with Highway 35 for 1.5 kilometres.
  Highway 7A is 48.3 kilometres long, passing through the Regional Municipality of Durham, city of Kawartha Lakes and Peterborough County. Outside of the communities it serves, the highway passes through generally agricultural areas, though it enters the Oak Ridges Moraine near Highway 35.
  The highway was designated in the 1930s in downtown Peterborough and shortly thereafter was extended west to Manchester. The causeways over Lake Scugog date back to the 1850s, and were repeatedly reinforced over the course of a century to reach their current state. During the 1950s, the construction of Highway 115 caused the route of Highway 7A to be modified.
context_section_description: Lake Scugog was created when William Purdy and his sons dammed the Scugog River in Lindsay (Upstream from the current dam and locks) in 1834 to power his grist mill. With the raised water levels, the highlands of Scugog Township became an island, separated from Cartwright Township to the southeast, and from Port Perry and Reach Township to the west. As a result, residents were forced to ferry across the lake during the summer and across the ice during the winter. The periods between were precarious, with many carts falling through the thawing ice and into the marsh. In 1852, Ontario County was formed, and residents began to petition the new government for construction of a bridge from Port Perry across to the island. Scugog Township passed Bylaw No. 2 on February 25, 1856, which granted $1000 towards construction of a floating bridge.
  The bridge proved to be an expensive burden, and for many years the responsibility for maintaining it was repeatedly shifted from township to county and back again. Ice would often carry away entire sections of the bridge during the spring thaw, requiring replanking or complete reconstruction. In the spring of 1876, work began to convert the first 180 metres (590 ft) of the Port Perry side of the floating bridge into a permanent embankment. Logs were placed along both sides the bridge and various materials piled between them, sinking it into the soft soil below. Earth laid over top to provide a stable surface. The process also increased the width of the roadbed from 3.7 metres (12 ft) to 5.5 metres (18 ft).
  Further construction on the Scugog Causeway met fierce opposition from county officials, who argued that the new method had not even faced a winter season. It took until July 1878 for work to resume, when Port Perry Reeve Joshua Wright managed to manipulate the county council, convincing them "to strike out the magnificent $150 [grant for seasonal maintenance which they had offered] and stipulate that 600 feet be filled in on the east end of the bridge." A contract for this work was tendered in June 1879, and completed one year later. Finally, in early 1885, work on the final 180 metres began. This work was completed in July, at which point repairs were carried out on the existing sections.
  Construction of the 4.2-kilometre (2.6 mi) Cartwright Causeway took place after nearly two decades of effort by its chief promoter, Joseph Bigelow. Bigelow witnessed the business opportunity that the Scugog Bridge opened up, and wished to construct a second structure towards Blackstock, opening the Port Perry markets to the fertile agricultural land of Cartwright Township. He first approached the Ontario County council in 1872 with his proposal, but was refused the funding. The council agreed to set up a committee, through which Bigelow sought out investors. In 1882, the Lake Scugog Marsh Lands Drainage Company, which had purchased the marshlands south of the proposed causeway, approached Bigelow with an offer to build his causeway as part of their plans to drain the marsh. They required a small investment in order to proceed with the work, but council ultimately refused even this, forcing the company to sell off its lands.
  Undeterred, Bigelow continued to accrue funds from other level of government and surrounding townships. By 1889, he had enough to begin work. Unlike the Scugog Bridge, Bigelow ensured that his structure would be permanent from the beginning and constructed a majority of the causeway by removing the top layer of peat from the marsh, piling logs in lengthwise approximately a metre deep and covering the exposed surface with the same depth of earth. By early 1891, the causeway was completed, and shortly thereafter trees were planted along both sides.
  The combined 12-kilometre (7.5 mi) route quickly grew to be the main east–west transportation corridor in the area. However, due to the soft soils and clay on which the causeway was built, it sank at a continuous rate and still required maintenance to keep it above water during the spring thaw. In 1928, both causeways were reinforced, wide
caption: The floating bridge, shortly after completion in the 1850s
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