In 1860, the 18 year old Prince of Wales

laid the first stone of the Canadian

Parliament buildings in Ottawa…
and the last stone of the world’s longest bridge in
Montreal named in honour of the Prince’s mother,
Queen Victoria.
The huge rail system that bridged the St. Lawrence River at
Montreal in 1860 linked “Canada West”(Ont.), “Canada
East”(Que.) & the ice-free harbour at Portland, Maine.
The different colonies of British North America 1840 -1867,
were transformed into the basis of …
a new country in 1867 because the Maritime Provinces wanted
a link with Canada’s Grand Trunk Railway (the GTR) .
Canada is one of a few countries that required the
building of railways in its Constitution.
By the 1880’s, the spectacular Canadian Pacific
Railway (CPR) was built across the continent…
 …linking Canada
by rail
“from sea to sea”.

In Latin on the
Canadian Coat of
Arms.
 Toronto’s Union Station

New buildings
created for
Canada’s
railways were
often
magnificent.
From the 1850’s, the act of building huge railways
brought many changes to Canadian life.
 Keefer, a Canadian engineer, designed arrow-headed
piers to deflect the St. Lawrence River’s ice flow in spring.

Victoria Bridge, Montreal, built 1854-1860

This was the first time in the world a bridge had to be
designed to break up ice.
 Existing
technology
from England
had to be
adapted to
Canadian
conditions.

Steam shovel, Victoria Bridge

Canadian contractors made steam-driven cranes
lifting over a period of 5 years:
The Victoria Bridge
was called the
 3 million cubic feet of stone
Eighth Wonder of
the World as it
 21/2 million cubic feet of timber required more
stone than the
 8,000 tons of metal
Pyramids.
Gantry: overhead span Travelling crane lifting up & to
supporting a travelling crane left or right

The basic designs of these travelling cranes, able to move

material in several directions, are still in use today.
 Stephenson, the chief
engineer for the Grand
Trunk, designed 25
tubular spans made
from the latest
wrought iron and
welding techniques to
rest on the stone piers.
Robert Stephenson, son of the famed British
inventor of the steam train the “Rocket
The new wrought iron needed to make tubular spans was too extensive
and complex to be built in the North America of the 1850’s.
The iron tubes were pre-fabricated at Birkenhead near Liverpool,
England in the “Canada Iron Works” built by the GTR
contractorThomas Brassey..
The 21/2 million rivets and over 11/2 million holes for the metal tubes were made in Birkenhead
by a special machine without one mistake . Charles Babbage’s ideas for a programmable
“computer” were used to develop the world’s first Roberts-Jacquard Metal Press.
It used punch cards to stamp out the metal sections for the Bridge.
For 5 years the punched plates and girders were labelled and
shipped by steamboats “on-time” across the Atlantic to be
assembled on the stone piers.
  So, in 1858, decimal
Canadian dollars replaced
British pounds and pence
on stamps and coins.

The inflow of capital from Britain to build the railway

stimulated Canadian jobs, industry, and confidence.
Access to the ice-free port in Portland, Maine allowed year round exports and imports.
Consequently, factories sprang up in Toronto and other towns in Ontario.
However, Canada’s industrial “take-off” in the 1850’s was centred in Montreal
(shown above)
 Rural British North America was evolving into urban Canada.
By 1920, the value of Canadian industrial products exceeded the value
of Canadian agricultural products.
 Railways themselves led to scientific innovation.
For example, time was measured originally by each
town at its high noon.

Grand Trunk Railway Time-Table 1860

The trains will be run on Montreal time which is–

8½ mins. faster than Brockville time.
12 mins. faster than Kingston time.
14½ mins. faster than Belleville time.
23 mins. faster than Toronto time.

A standard time for the world’s largest railway was needed.

Sir Sandford Fleming lobbied in Britain & the United States for a
standard international time.
Greenwich Mean Time was then established as world time
mosly because of the efforts of this Canadian railroad engineer.
 In the 1850’s, metal for the tracks & bridges and many of the engines & cars (rolling
stock)
for the GTR were imported from England.
By the time the CPR reached Vancouver (above) in the 1880’s, most of the track and
rolling stock were manufactured in Canada. Industrialization had migrated from Britain.
 The coming of the
GTR followed by the
CPR changed
Canada & the
peoples who lived
there.
Skilled workers migrated from Britain & Ireland joining people already here to
build the GTR. Native Peoples delivered the stonework to the Victoria Bridge.
This later led to Native Peoples working on skyscrapers and other
infrastructure projects. French Canadian axemen built the wood scaffolding.
In the 1880’s, many Chinese worked on the CPR and migrated eastwards
on the new train system. Chinese communities in Ontario, Quebec,
and the Maritimes date from then.
Yet, perhaps the most important population change
arose because the railway companies encouraged
migration from Europe as well as from Britain.
 Both the GTR and CPR printed books for their agents in Northern and
Eastern Europe. Emigrants could buy tickets from there through to the
prairies. This migration created Alberta and Saskatchewan.
Steamboats and steam trains shifted millions of emigrants to
Canada. Here a Russian Jewish family is boarding a train at
Quebec.
 “Home Children” being fed in Montreal before trains
distribute them as farm labourers throughout Canada.

Cheap, fast and

efficient steam travel
also changed “who”
came from Britain to
Canada.
From 1867 to 1920
about 100,000 poor
British children
came.
 Cheap, fast
travel also
allowed
Canadians to
visit Europe in
large numbers

Irish Canadian Pilgrims to Rome being welcomed back by

Father Dowd at St Patrick’s Basilica.
The new railways improved access
to existing goods & services.
It became cheaper & quicker
to use RR’s to deliver mail.
As a result, volume of mail
increased & mail order by
catalogue became common.
Toronto
Show

Railways changed small local agricultural shows into

large province wide gatherings.
 Toronto’s Crystal Palace

 The Toronto
exhibit
became the
CNE,(Can.
Nat. Exhib.),
the world’s
oldest
continually
run
exhibition.

Permanent exhibition buildings were built for the 1860 visit of

the Prince of Wales in many parts of Canada
Increased readership
encouraged daily rather than
just weekly newspapers.

Different types of papers

developed:
The Canadian Illustrated News
and Le Opinion Publique
were the world’s first to use
half-tone prints.
Press barons with enormous
political power changed
Canada to a media-driven
democracy.

The power of the press

soared partly because
trains quickly distributed
the news in papers over
a wide area.
Leisure was transformed.

Tourist areas such as the

Thousand Islands were
developed because steamboats
& trains carried Americans &
Britons as well as Canadians.

Railways promoted train travel

to carry the new townspeople
back into the countryside for
vacations.
 The railway station by Niagara Falls was especially busy &
developed this area into a world famous tourist attraction.
A trip from
London,
Ontario to
Port
Stanley on
Lake Erie

Railways encouraged often high-spirited crowds

by running cheap holiday excursions.
Note the
gate-
paying
crowd.
Toronto is
playing
Montreal
for the
World
Champion-
ship of
lacrosse.

Trains carried crowds to watch sports. Teams of

professional lacrosse and hockey players grew.
While long distances were often uncomfortable, rail links allowed
teams to travel to other towns. Sports leagues were born.
 Early photograph of Canadian football (McGill
Univ., Montreal)

Football, soccer, and rugby leagues as well as curling

bonspiels were established because of railways.
 Rail links created
international
matches too.

Boston’s Harvard
University played
the very first
football game
against McGill
University in
Montreal, 1874.

This match led to the American National Football League (NFL) of

1920-22
Canadians can be proud of the elaborate railcar they built in 1860 for
the Prince of Wales.
.
◦Canadians can also be proud of
the railways they built and that
those railways shaped Canada.