New Line Over Continent.
Work on the latest American transcontinental railroad is nearing completion. “Only a few miles remain to link the Canadian Northern railroad from ocean to ocean,” said R. Creelman, general passenger agent of the Canadian Northern, when on a visit in Chicago the other day. “The last gap, north of Kamloops, in British Columbia, is being closed at the rate of nearly three miles a day, and the final linking of the unbroken line of steel from the Atlantic to the Pacific should take place before the end of this month. It still lacks more than four years of a half century since the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific linked the two oceans, forming the first continuous all-rail route across the continent. In 1885 the Canadian Pacific was completed. The Canadian Northern is the latest of the transcontinentals. The line extends from Quebec through Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Port Arthur, Winnipeg, Regina, Edmonton, Calgary, to Vancouver. While the main line is approximately 3,100 miles long, from Quebec to Vancouver, feeders increase the mileage of the system to slightly over 9,000, nearly two-thirds of which has been in operation for a number of years.
“The completed road will be a monument to the enterprise of two famous railroad builders—Sir William Mackenzie and Sir Donald Mann. Their first experience in railroad building came with the construction of the Canadian Pacific thirty years ago. Since 1896 they have been engaged on the Canadian Northern system.”