Canada and the StatesWatkin, E. W. (Edward William), Sir
History
Canada and the States
Watkin, E. W. (Edward William), Sir
Canada -- Description and travel; Canada -- History; United States -- Description and travel
The old Grand Trunk proprietors feel that their early pioneer services
to Canada, and their heavy sacrifices, have rather been ignored in
competition, than recognized, by the Canadian Pacific not being an
extension of the Grand Trunk system. Had I remained in office as
President of the Grand Trunk, undoubtedly I should have laboured hard
to bring about such a consummation, which undoubtedly would have
economised capital and hastened the completion of the great Inter-
oceanic work. But the London agents of Canada, who were, and are,
responsible for launching the Grand Trunk and for its many issues of
capital to British shareholders, have undoubtedly aided the competition
and rivalry complained of; for in July, 1885, they floated--when other
great financial houses were unable--3,000,000_l_. sterling, not
for the Pacific line itself, but to complete other extensions of the
Pacific Company's system of a directly competitive character with the
Grand Trunk, and which could never have been finished but for this
British money, so raised. While I do not enter into the controversy, it
still seems to me that blame lies nearer home than in Canada, if blame
be deserved at all. Great financiers seem sometimes ready to devour
their own industrial children.
The Canadian Pacific Railway from Quebec to Port Moody is a mixture of
the new and the old. The first section, from Quebec to Montreal, is an
old friend, the North Shore Railway, once possessed by the Grand Trunk
Company, and sold back to the Canadian Government for purposes of
extending the Pacific route to tide-water at Quebec, and making one,
throughout, management. From Montreal to Ottawa, and beyond, is another
section of older-made line. The piece from Port Arthur to Winnipeg is
an older railway, made by the Canadian Government. Again, on the
Pacific there is the British Columbia Government Railway. All the rest,
round the head of Lake Superior up to Port Arthur, from Winnipeg across
the Great Prairies to Calgary, and on to, and across, the Rocky
Mountains, the crossings of the Selkirk and other Columbian Ranges, is
new Railway--with works daring and wonderful.
Pioneer railways are not like works at home. The lines are single, with
crossing places every five, ten, or twenty miles; ballast is not always
used, the lines on prairies being laid for long stretches on the earth
formation; rivers, chasms, canons and cataracts are crossed by timber
trestle bridges. The rails, of steel, are flat bottomed, fastened by
spikes, 60 lbs. to the yard, except through the mountains, where they
are 70 lbs.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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