Approached from the mouth of Halifax Harbour, the Northwest Arm is a narrow channel, enclosed on either side by tree-covered hills. Halifax residents have enjoyed its tranquil beauty for more than two hundred years and have used the area for industry and pleasure. Streams that course down to the shore have provided power for mills, while fishermen filled their boats with seafood. Quarries on the western side have supplied stone for roads and fortifications around the harbour. Today, the shores of the Arm are lined with houses and private wharfs where once were rambling country estates.
This lavishly illustrated book rediscovers the history of the Arm, including the prison at Melville Island, now the Armdale Yacht Club, the park and Memorial Tower given to Halifax by Sir Sandford Fleming and villages that grew up on this picturesque corner of Nova Scotia.