In 1890, the ICR completed construction of what had begun as the Cape Breton Eastern Extension Railway, with a line running from its former NSR terminus at New Glasgow eastward through Antigonish to the port of Mulgrave where a railcar ferry service was instituted over a route across the deep waters of the Strait of Canso to Point Tupper. The line then headed east across the centre of Cape Breton Island, crossing the Bras d'Or Lake on the newly built Grand Narrows Bridge, continuing to the port of North Sydney (with ferry and steamship connections to Port aux Basques, Newfoundland) and terminating in the burgeoning industrial centre and port of Sydney.