Community comes together to light Port Elgin walking bridge for the holidays

A century-old wooden bridge in a small southeastern New Brunswick community has received a makeover for the holidays.

The old train bridge in Port Elgin — known by locals as the Slab Bridge — now boasts more than 3,000 twinkling bulbs. And it's all thanks to a local couple who wanted to put smiles on their neighbours' faces.

"Six years ago, when I moved back to New Brunswick, I said to my husband, Keith, I said the bridge would look beautiful at Christmas lit up with lights," said Jackie Giles.

"He thought it was a little crazy, but he said if I could get the lights that he would put them up for me."

That was in November, just before the Giles's went on vacation. By the time they got back, Keith had a promise to fulfil.

"I never, ever expected it was gonna happen. I told her ... 'You'll never be able to afford to buy the lights,'" he said. "We would have never been able to do it on our own."

But the couple didn't have to do the project alone. Jackie put a call out on a community Facebook page, and soon there were more than $2,000 worth of donations. 

"Everybody thought it was a great idea, and why hadn't somebody thought of it before," she said. "Everybody was pretty excited about it. Once we lit it up, they were even more excited."

Keith figured out how to get the lights on the bridge with help from some neighbours.

"Seven-hundred feet of extension cords, 600 tie wraps and nails, and 14 hours of not just my labour, there was some help, six or seven or eight of us throughout the day," he said.

There was one problem — how to supply power to a bridge built in 1884. But more community members chimed in to say they'd help out with that. The closest building to the bridge is an old mill, now owned by the sons of the original operator, Horace Spence.

"We gave them a shout and they donated the power. They said we could plug into their building," said Jackie. "So with quite a few feet of extension cords, we got hooked up."

The lights came on Dec. 1, with people gathered in the cold to watch Keith plug them in.

"You couldn't have asked for a better night, the reflection off the water was just phenomenal," he said.