Book Description

William Cornelius Van Horne and the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway.

For armchair railroaders, historians, students - anyone fascinated by Canadian history - Van Horne_s Road is a pictorial history of the railroad that forged a nation.

Widely hailed as one of the most informative and important histories of the construction and first years of operation of the Canadian Pacific transcontinental railway, this vibrant new edition of Van Horne's Road has been reformatted and redesigned for a new generation of readers and as a permanent tribute to the people responsible for the building of what has been called Canada_s National Highway.

Containing more than 450 photographs, illustrations, and historic documents - supplemented by 40 maps and diagrams designed by the author - the book presents a coast-to-coast recreation of what indisputably stands as one of the most important and historic undertakings in the history of this nation. ... Read more

Book Description
In the four years between 1881 and 1885, Canada was forged into one nation by the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway. The Last Spike reconstructs the incredible story of how some 2,000 miles of steel crossed the continent in just five years — exactly half the time stipulated in the contract. Pierre Berton recreates the adventures that were part of this vast undertaking: the railway on the brink of bankruptcy, with one hour between it and ruin; the extraordinary land boom of Winnipeg in 1881–1882; and the epic tale of how William Van Horne rushed 3,000 soldiers over a half-finished railway to quell the Riel Rebellion.

Dominating the whole saga are the men who made it all possible — a host of astonishing characters: Van Horne, the powerhouse behind the vision of a transcontinental railroad; Rogers, the eccentric surveyor; Onderdonk, the cool New Yorker; Stephen, the most emotional of businessmen; Father Lacombe, the black-robed voyageur; Sam Steele, of the North West Mounted Police; Gabriel Dumont, the Prince of the Prairies; more than 7,000 Chinese workers, toiling and dying in the canyons of the Fraser Valley; and many more — land sharks, construction geniuses, politicians, and entrepreneurs — all of whom played a role in the founding of the new Canada west of Ontario. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The Line that Joined a Nation
"The Last Spike" chronicles the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), 1881-1885, then the world's longest railway, extending a young Canada westward and consolidating its territories.

Originally published in 1971 by the prolific Canadian historian, the late Pierre Berton, this is a well-researched account of a project now generally overlooked outside Canada. Amply endowed with facts, the book is nonetheless a fluent and gripping read, far removed from the dry and dusty history one might expect of such a topic. Laced with dramatic tension, it details the massive undertaking and paints memorable portraits of the principal characters involved, such as Prime Minister John A. MacDonald, financiers Donald A. Smith and George Stephen, and the inimitable William Cornelius Van Horne, an American-turned-Canadian, general manager of the enterprise.

The author explains the political, economic, and nationalist reasons for building the CPR. The engineering challenges were colossal, the logistics mind-boggling. Harnessing the energies of a domestic, indigenous and multinational workforce the rails advanced -- sometimes fitfully, at other times with impressive, regimented speed. As the track moved west, new towns flourished and the vast prairie -- the grain heartland of modern Canada -- was opened up. The line brought prosperity and tourism to the once-mysterious fastness of the west and made present-day Vancouver possible.

At 1,800 miles long (excluding the eastern network laid down earlier), the line was completed in half the time imposed by the government contract -- including the formidable 500-mile stretch through the Rockies and the Selkirks. Most of the time the venture was on the brink of failure, due to competition and the nervous response of foreign investors to slur campaigns in America and Britain. The necessary capital appeared just in time, thanks largely to the Canadian government's need to quell rebellion in the northwest -- one of the book's highlights and illustrative of the role played by luck in history.

The hardcover edition contains a few maps, but more would have helped. The bibliography is extensive, the index adequate. If you are interested in railways, Canada's history, or have an affinity for large-scale works, this book will reward you. ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description

In this new edition of a railway classic, Barrie Sanford, author of McCulloch's Wonder, presents a unique pictorial history of the legendary Kettle Valley Railway. Archival photographs and several from the author's personal collection illustrate the history of the Kettle Valley Railway from its construction through its turbulent lifespan and eventual demise. These moving visual images celebrate the magnitude of the engineering feats achieved by Andrew McCulloch and the many workers who made the railway a reality. Many workers died in the attempt to lay track across three mountain ranges and some of the world's most rugged river canyons. More lost their lives in the railway's subsequent years of operating freight and passenger services on the sometimes treacherous tracks of British Columbia's southern interior. For all historians and railway buffs, this is an essential book.