Stanley Rides the Canadian Pacific Railway!

The C.P.R achieved a dream of a transcontinental Canada in 1885. The rail tracks would go west from Toronto across the northern part of Ontario, before heading across thousands of kilometers of western prairies and mountain ranges.

The C.P.R joined the Pacific coast with the Eastern cities and settled the West. The reason why Canada needed a railway was that British Columbia came to Canada in 1872, with the promise to build a railroad within ten years.

In 1878 Sir John A. MacDonald (Canada's first Prime Minister) helped the Canadian Pacific Railway with a grant of twenty five million dollars and many acres of land. The C.P.R.'s general manager was William Cornelius Van Horne who in 1882 took on the job of construction. Railway tracks were soon outside Northern Ontario, travelling up from Ottawa and Montreal, and soon from Toronto as well.

At the same time in Western British Columbia, there still were construction crews building. While the workers made tracks there was a tragic accident. A rock slide hit! Mud and rock came tumbling down and killed twelve workers. At last, in November 1885 workers crossed from East to West, meeting in the B.C. interior.

However, the costs of the railroad rose as the building continued. On the prairies, track laying from Winnipeg to Regina and Calgary leaped ahead to B.C. One man who donated a lot of money to help keep the railway being built was Lord Strathcona. He was given the honor of driving the last spike into the ground, which was painted gold. The spike was driven in at Craigellachie, British Columbia, on November 7, 1889. In the years that followed, the Canadian Pacific Railway carried settlers from the East and West coasts.

The C.P.R. in Calgary's Future:
We think that sooner or later they will take the C.P.R down, and build a different railway. The railway tracks are very old and need to be fixed. There are also very dangerous parts of the railway that need to be rebuilt. We know that the railway was important (and still is) because it was the first track to Rthe west and helped make Canada bigger by moving people and goods to the other side of the country. The railway made Calgary bigger and helped to make the town a city.

By Miranda and Russell