Canadian Pacific Railway

The Canadian Pacific Railway is a transcontinental railway completed in 1885, linking eastern Canada with the Pacific coast and opening routes into the Rockies.

Confederation of Canada: The 1867 union that established the Dominion of Canada from several British North American colonies. The railway became a condition for bringing British Columbia into the new federation.
Canadian Pacific Railway Act: The 1881 Canadian law that chartered the Canadian Pacific Railway and granted it rights and subsidies. The act defined the company’s obligations and the public support for completing the line.
William Cornelius Van Horne: The railway executive who directed the Canadian Pacific Railway’s rapid construction in the 1880s. His management drove the final push to complete the transcontinental line.
National Policy: John A. Macdonald’s program of protective tariffs, western settlement, and railway development in the late nineteenth century. The railway was the transport backbone of the policy’s westward expansion.
Grand Trunk Railway: A major nineteenth-century railway system that connected central Canada with the Atlantic coast and the northeastern United States. Its earlier eastern network contrasted with the Canadian Pacific’s coast-to-coast reach.
British Columbia: A province on Canada’s Pacific coast, admitted to Confederation in 1871. Its entry into Canada was tied to a promise of a transcontinental railway.
Last Spike (Canadian Pacific Railway): The ceremonial final spike driven at Craigellachie, British Columbia, on November 7, 1885. The ceremony marked the physical joining of the railway’s eastern and western sections.
Donald Smith: A Scottish-born Canadian financier and politician who helped secure funding for the railway company. He drove the ceremonial last spike at Craigellachie.
Canadian Pacific Railway land grant: The federal grant of land and other concessions used to support construction of the railway. The company sold land to settlers, tying railway finance to western colonization.
Canadian Northern Railway: A transcontinental railway built by private promoters that became a principal competitor to the Canadian Pacific Railway. Its later expansion challenged the Canadian Pacific’s dominance in western Canada.

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