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CUSTOMER SPOTLIGHT

Canadian Pacific Railway

CP History

Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) was founded in
1881 to link Canada’s populated centers with
the vast potential of its relatively unpopulated
West. This incredible engineering feat was
completed on Nov. 7, 1885 – six years ahead of
schedule – when the last spike was driven at
Craigellachie, B.C.

Building a Nation

Canadian Pacific Railway was formed to physically unite Canada and Canadians from coast to coast. Canada’s con-
federation on July 1, 1867 brough four eastern provinces together to form a new country. As part of the deal, Nova
Scotia and New Brunswick were promised a railway to link them with the two Central Canadian provinces – Que-
bec and Ontario.

On October 21, 1880 a group of Scottish Canadian businessmen
finally formed a viable syndicate to build a transcontinental railway.
The Canadian Pacific Railway Company was incorporated February
16, 1881, with George Stephen as its first president.
The 1881 construction season was a bust and the railway’s chief
engineer and general superintendent were fired. They were re-
placed by Cornelius Van Horne, a rising star in the U.S. as the new
general manager to oversee the railway construction.

Growth and Diversification

By 1889, the railway extended from coast to coast and the enterprise had expanded to include a wide range of relat-
ed and unrelated businesses.
CP Railway had been involved in land settlement and land sales as early as September 1881. The company also
erected telegraph lines right alongside the main transcontinental line, transmitting its first commercial telegram in
1882. The same year also marked CPR’s entry in the express shipment business, with the acquisition of the Domin-
ion Express Company. CPR started building some of its own steam locomotives as early as 1883. And would later
build its own passenger cars, making it second only on the continent to the Pullman Company of Chicago, IL.

CPR had steamships on the Great Lakes in 1883, chartered ships on the Pacific Ocean in 1886 and launched its own
Pacific fleet in 1891. CPR got into paddle wheelers in British Columbia’s interior in 1893, the B.C. coast in 1901, and
the Atlantic Ocean in 1903. The company was also involved in the hotel and tourist trade as early as 1886 after Van
Horne suggested setting up a national park system in the Canadian Rockies.

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