OTD: Canadian Pacific Railway opens main line

On today’s date in 1887, the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) opened its 4,700-kilometre main line to public traffic about 18 months after the last spike was driven in at Craigellachie, B.C.

The CPR’s trains began running across Canada about a year earlier; however, passengers were only able to ride directly to the Vancouver coastline beginning in May 1887.

From 1899-1913, the CPR increased its trackage from about 11,000 kilometres to nearly 18,000 kilometres. With more than half of the new track in the prairie provinces, it was intended to provide branch lines into areas of need and to ensure the CPR remained competitive with the developing transcontinental lines of the Canadian Northern Railway and the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway.

CPR COINS

In 2005, the CPR was featured on an $8 silver coin set issued by the Royal Canadian Mint to mark the 120th anniversary of the historic railway.

The CPR was also featured on the Mint’s annual $15 Fine silver coin — the eighth in the series, dubbed Building the Canadian Pacific Railway — in 2015.

The reverse design, by Canadian artist John Mantha, pays tribute to the 30,000 workers who helped complete the transcontinental railway project – one of the monumental achievements of post-Confederation Canada – with a scene embodying the arduous nature of laying railroad tracks through the mountains. Two navigators are driving a spike while another worker hauls gravel to fill the gaps between railway ties.

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