If Anne of Green Gables had been crossing the Confederation Bridge with us, she no doubt would have invested the moment with the appropriate amount of imaginative awe.

The nine-mile concrete bridge, which opened in May 1997 and links Canada’s New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, is certainly an engineering marvel: It’s reputed to be the longest continuous marine span in the world. The bridge has replaced Anne Shirley, the carrot-redheaded character from Lucy Maud Montgomery’s books, as the icon you see on PEI license plates, and its opening is probably the biggest thing to happen to the island since the pigtailed orphan dubbed a placid little pond The Lake of Shining Waters 90 years ago, when the novel was first published.

But the 10-minute drive on the bridge across Northumberland Strait between Cape Tormentine, New Brunswick, and Borden-Carlton, Prince Edward Island, was, for us weary and less enthusiastic souls, kind of disappointing. Perhaps it was the long, unrelenting day’s drive from Portland, Maine, through a friendly but flat and uninteresting New Brunswick. Or perhaps it was the high concrete walls that prevented us from seeing the water on either side once we were on the bridge.

But never mind. Once we were on the island, we could easily imagine what Anne found so enchanting about Canada’s smallest province.

About 140 miles long and 4 to 40 miles wide, the island sits, cradled in the armlike cape of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, like an innocent and, up to now, protected throwback to North America’s rural heritage. Except for neat white clapboard houses, fishing boats and the occasional car, our first vista was nothing but undulating fields of hay, barley and potatoes spread out before us to the shimmering sea.

Much of this has been doubtless preserved by the fact that before the bridge, the ferry, which still operates between Caribou, Nova Scotia, and Wood Islands, Prince Edward Island, was the only way to get on and off the island. Many of the 135,000 islanders, descendants of mostly British and some French farmers and seafarers, worried that the bridge would increase traffic, bring too many tourists and mean the end of their quiet way of life. Building the bridge — named after the confederation of Canadian provinces, which had its birth in 1864 in PEI’s capital, Charlottetown — was the subject of many soul-searching articles and debates.

So far, although there appear to be some changes, the island is hardly turning into a congested metropolis. Frank Butler, chief of transportation operations for Prince Edward Island Tourism, said that from May to October 1997 (the latest available figures), tourism was up 54 percent over the previous year; many of these tourists were “day-trippers” from Nova Scotia or New Brunswick. And in addition to a Holiday Inn, the island now boasts a Sheraton. Nevertheless, Butler said, islanders are “sensitive to the landscape and the quiet style of life. … We’re selling a pace of life where you can forget your Day-Timer and cell phone.”

Yes, indeed.

Our first stop was the Keir’s Shore Inn in Malpeque on the north shore. Although not far from Cavendish, a hot tourist spot because the house that inspired Green Gables is there, Malpeque is a quiet little village of comfortable houses and fishing shacks. Turning down a red-dirt road — all the land is red because of heavy iron oxide — we came upon a white clapboard farmhouse built in 1790 next to quiet Malpeque Bay. The house, once owned by a doctor who had been a close friend of Montgomery, has been elegantly restored with antiques by the owners, Steve Stratos and Colleen Bogdon, who moved to the island a few years ago from Toronto.

Although the sun hadn’t yet set, Stratos sent us quickly about two miles down the road to a modest little diner before it closed for the evening — no late nights here. As we sat staring at a blazing sunset on the water across the road and scarfing down a really fresh, cheap seafood dinner, we noticed Stratos riding on his bicycle, checking to make sure we’d made it to the restaurant.

The mournful sound of loons woke us the next morning, and we ate an elegant breakfast that included fresh fruit garnished with nasturtiums grown in the garden. The kids were impressed but not quite ready to eat the flowers.

The rest of the morning was devoted to Anne. Although she is just a fictional character, she’s hard to escape on the island: The north shore is known as Anne’s Land; every gift shop has dozen of Anne dolls in every size; and her prettified, pigtailed face appears on everything, from salt shakers to sweatshirts.

My 10-year-old daughter had read several in the series of Anne books — Montgomery wrote eight that featured Anne and her family — and the rest of us had read or reread the original “Anne of Green Gables.” Still, I found myself wondering why we were standing in this long line to see the farmhouse in Cavendish owned by Montgomery’s elderly cousins that became Green Gables in the book. (Last year’s fire damage has been repaired.)

Most of the visitors were elderly folks on a bus tour from Boston, and I was curious about what appealed to them in this character from a child’s book. Now a national park, the house and grounds are based on descriptions in the novel, including furnishings from the 1890s.

The kids happily wandered through the fields and paths that inspired Montgomery and her character: As in the book, there’s a Lovers’ Lane, a mellow path through a field that ends in overhanging boughs, Haunted Wood and even Dryad’s Bubble, a chirpy little brook.

Earlier, we had visited the Anne of Green Gables Museum at Silver Bush, owned by Montgomery’s aunt and uncle and the place where Montgomery was married. The homestead has the kind of worn-at-the-edges feel that probably was more typical of a turn-of-the-century colonial farmhouse than the national park site.

After another comfortable night at Keir’s Shore Inn, we headed for Summerside on the south shore, where Anne goes to be a high school principal in a later book. In real life, it is the site of a theater and many festivals.

Victoria-by-the-Sea, east of Summerside, could be a great setting for a novel that calls for a charming, slightly down-at-the-heels hamlet. We stayed at the comfortable Orient Hotel, where we had a lovely midafternoon tea at Mrs. Profitt’s Tea Shop.

Despite our fervid attempts to take in the sights on PEI, I realized at one point it was the lack of sights that was the most beguiling aspect of the place — the long placid views toward the water, the boats clanging in the small harbors, the roads never filled with cars.

One afternoon my daughter and I rented horses for a trail ride. The horses were pathetic, broken-down creatures, and I might have left before the ride if my husband and son hadn’t already gone off with the car. But as we began the ride, skirting potato fields, down empty, red, dusty roads to the glorious sea, I couldn’t help myself: I was happy.

As Anne says to her guardian: “Marilla, one can’t stay sad very long in such an interesting world, can one?”

Where on Prince Edward Island

Newsday

Staying there: Keir’s Shore Inn, Box 7615 Malpeque, COB 1MO. Phone: (902) 836-3938. Orient Hotel, Main Street, Victoria-by-the-Sea, COA 2GO. Reservations: Box 162 Charlottetown, C1A 7K4; phone: (902) 658-2503; fax (902) 658-2078.

Eating there: Several communities on the island have revitalized their harbors, providing waterfront dining venues. In Charlottetown, MacKinnon’s seafood restaurant, Prince Street Wharf, (902) 368-2888, overlooking the Charlottetown Harbor; near downtown shops on Victoria Row, Kelly’s restaurant and bar for weekend blues and jazz, (902) 628-6569; in Summerside, Zellers restaurant, lunch and family restaurant overlooking harbor, (902) 436-7217; Victoria-by-the Sea, Mrs. Profitt’s Tea Shop in the Orient Hotel for lunch, teas and dinner by reservation, (902) 658-2503; Seawinds restaurant, on Victoria wharf, (902) 658-2200; in New Glasgow, the Cafe on the Clyde, located inside Prince Edward Island Preserve Co., (902) 964-4305.

Information: For a visitors package that includes places to stay, call (888) PEI-PLAY or (888) 734-7529.