Canadian Pacific Railway - Canadian History.

« roads constructed inland from the lakeshore.

However, this changed with the outbreak in Saskatchewan of the Northwest Rebellion by Louis Riel and his supportersagainst the authority of the Canadian government in March 1885.

Despite the fact that the railway was not completed, a contingent of troops was able to reachWinnipeg from Montréal in only seven days, much faster than they could have gone overland, and get from there to Saskatchewan in time to successfully put down therebellion.

This action helped the government pass a bill to loan the CPR C$5 million.

The last rails on this section were laid on May 16, 1885. C The Mountain Line Before construction began on the section west from Calgary to British Columbia in the fall of 1883, the CPR had decided to build through Kicking Horse Pass (west ofBanff, Alberta), instead of the more northerly Yellowhead Pass as they had originally planned, in order to save time and money.

However, in order to build a direct,short line to the Pacific coast from Kicking Horse Pass, it became necessary to traverse the Selkirk Mountains in southeastern British Columbia, through which no passhad yet been discovered.

A CPR engineer, Major A.

B.

Rogers, successfully located a pass, which was named in his honor, in the summer of 1882.

The route through themountains was successfully completed in early 1885. In 1884 and 1885, Andrew Onderdonk was pushing construction of the mountain line in British Columbia east from the Fraser Canyon to Savona’s Ferry, and from thereto Eagle Pass in the Monashee Mountains.

The line from Calgary met the line from the west at Craigellachie in Eagle Pass on November 7, 1885.

To mark the occasion, aceremony was held at which Donald Smith drove in the last spike of the railroad.

The first passenger train left Montréal on June 28, 1886, and arrived at Port Moody sixdays later. The total length of the main line from Montréal to Port Moody was 4656 km (2893 mi).

Van Horne decided that the railway’s western terminus should be moved to theBurrard Peninsula, and he established good port facilities there at Coal Harbour (that portion of Burrard Inlet east of modern Stanley Park).

He named the new townVancouver after the British naval captain George Vancouver, who had explored the area in 1792.

The CPR line was extended west from Port Moody to Vancouver, andthe first train from Montréal arrived there on May 23, 1887. V BRANCHING OUT After the completion of the main line, the CPR’s biggest challenge was to develop enough rail traffic to make the company self-sustaining.

In 1885 the CPR took overfrom the Québec government the North Shore Railway connecting Montréal with Québec City.

The company then gradually developed an extensive branchline networkin Québec and Ontario.

Some attention was devoted to the Maritime provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island by the opening in 1889 of aline across northern Maine from Montréal to Saint John, New Brunswick.

This gave the CPR access to a Canadian Atlantic port. The CPR also devoted attention to developing shipping overseas, as well as rail traffic in western Canada.

In 1891 the company purchased three new ocean vessels forpassengers and cargo, which operated out of Vancouver.

They quickly became profitable, bringing tea, silk, and other items from Japan and China, and providing luxuryaccommodation for wealthy tourists eager to visit East Asia.

Starting in 1898 the CPR began construction of a rail line from Lethbridge, Alberta, into the Kootenay regionof southern British Columbia to capture the commercial traffic from the region’s expanding mining industry.

This eventually led to the CPR’s involvement in mining andmetallurgy. After 1896 large-scale immigration to the prairie areas led the CPR to substantially increase its branchline network in the region.

The main line from Winnipeg to FortWilliam was double-tracked between 1905 and 1909.

These measures enabled the company to handle much of the rapidly increasing prairie grain crop. The CPR also earned large revenues from its hotel chain, which was founded by William Van Horne.

Recognizing the tourist potential of the hot springs near Banff,discovered in 1885, he decided to build the Banff Springs Hotel (1888), a five-story building with a view of the Rocky Mountains.

The CPR’s first city hotel was theluxurious Hotel Vancouver (1887).

Next was the famous Château Frontenac in Québec City (1893), which introduced the château style used for the Empress Hotel inVictoria (1908), as well as for hotels built by other Canadian railways.

Luxury hotels were also established in Montréal (1898), Winnipeg (1906), and Calgary (1914). VI EFFECTS AND INFLUENCE OF THE RAILWAY Major urban centers developed along the main line of the Canadian Pacific Railway in the west.

Winnipeg, the western headquarters of the CPR, became the center ofthe western grain and wholesale trades, a major factor in the city’s rapid population growth in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Much of the early growth of Vancouverwas centered around its extensive service facilities, which built and maintained an increasing amount of the CPR’s equipment.

The gradual expansion of Vancouver’sport facilities also contributed substantially to the city’s development. Additionally, the development of the CPR and American transcontinental railroads played a major role in the establishment of international standard time in 1885.

Untilthen, every city and town had its own time system.

While directing government surveys of the route of the CPR in the 1870s, Sandford Fleming realized that constanttime changes from city to city across the continent would cause serious confusion in the CPR’s passenger and freight schedules.

He promoted the concept ofinternational time zones that was adopted by the CPR and major U.S.

railroads in 1883.

This system was adopted internationally the following year. VII THE RAILWAY TODAY Today, the Canadian Pacific is a large, diverse, and complex enterprise.

In 1962 the non-transportation interests such as real estate, mining, and oil and gas productionwere vested in a holding company.

Diversification into other modes of transportation (trucking and airlines) led the company to change its name to Canadian PacificLimited in 1971 and later to the Canadian National Railway Company. For revenues, profits, and other information about this corporation, see the table attached to this article. Contributed By:John A.

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