Yet in building this line the contractors set up an engineering monument which for years ranked as the “eighth wonder of the world.” Montreal was on the north bank of the St. Lawrence, while the link connecting the metropolis with the Atlantic seaboard followed the southern bank of the river. The two sections of line were interrupted by the rolling waterway, which at this point is nearly two miles wide. The spanning of this gap, so as to bring Montreal into direct railway touch with the coast, had been one of the great obstacles to the incorporation of the railway in the first instance, but Messrs. Peto, Betts & Brassey undertook to forge this link. At that time it was so formidable an undertaking as to be thought absolutely incapable of realisation. Indeed, when a suggestion for bridging the St. Lawrence at this point was advanced for the first time, it was laughed to scorn. [Illustration: “THE EIGHTH WONDER OF THE WORLD” The wonderful tubular bridge, 6,592 feet long, built by Ross and Stephenson across the St. Lawrence River to carry the Grand Trunk Railway into Montreal.] [Illustration: THE BRIDGE AS RECONSTRUCTED The continuous tube carrying a single track was converted into an open truss girder bridge to take two sets of metals, tramway line, road and pavement.] However, its construction constituted a vital part of the contract. Accordingly, the contractors lost no time in attacking the undertaking when they secured a foothold in the Dominion. The river was surveyed minutely up and down for a considerable distance, while detailed soundings were made to discover the extent and nature of the foundations requisite for the piers. After infinite labour a suitable site was discovered, and a great measure of credit for the location is due to Alexander M. Ross, who was one of the engineers to the undertaking, George Stephenson acting as consulting engineer. Ross carried carefully prepared and detailed plans of the structure he had formulated to his coadjutator in England, and Stephenson admitted, when first submitted to his notice, that “the idea was certainly startling.” However, he complimented Ross upon his daring, and as the latter engineer had won his spurs in England before he departed to Canada on behalf of the group of capitalists financing the Grand Trunk railway, his work received greater consideration from the eminent engineer than might have been the case otherwise. The result was that when Stephenson went to Canada to consider the subject on the spot he concurred with Ross in the general scheme, and the design was elaborated conjointly.