1832—First railway charter issued in Canada to Champlain & St. Lawrence Railroad, an 18 mile line from La Prairie, Quebec, on the St. Lawrence above Montreal, to St. Johns, Quebec, on the Richelieu River. The motive power was horses until steam engine replaced them in 1837.
1837—Cumberland Valley Railway, in Pennsylvania, is said to have used the first sleeping car.
1838, April 3—Lieutenant Roberts, R.N., set sail from Cork, Ireland, in the two funnelled, one master “Sirius” of the St. George Steam Packet Company, with forty passengers at 35 guineas per capita, and arrived at New York in 19 days, being the earliest steam vessel crossing from Europe to America.
1850—First public proposal, as a practical enterprise, to lay a Trans-atlantic cable, made by Right Reverend J. T. Mullock, Catholic Bishop of St. Johns, Newfoundland, which American Trans-atlantic Telegraph Company realised in 1867 under the chairmanship of Peter Cooper, the philanthropist.
1851, Sept.—At Boston, Mass., occurred a three day jubilee to celebrate the connection by railway of Montreal and Boston, at which President Filmore of United States and Lord Elgin, Queen Victoria’s representative in British North America, were prominent amongst a large gathering of distinguished international visitors.
1851–2—First international suspension bridge erected over Niagara River by Great Western-New York Central Rys. The engineer was John A. Roebling, it cost $400,000, kites were used to carry across the first ropes. The late Bob. Lewis was telegraph operator at Suspension Bridge at that time and Ferdinand Richardt painted from a daguerreotype the picture of this bridge from which D. L. Glover engraved any prints extant.
1852–3—Inauguration of Ontario, Simcoe & Huron Railway. Incorporated 1849, it was the first of Ontario’s lines and ran from the foot of Brock Street, Toronto, to Collingwood, on Georgian Bay. It became the Northern Railway 1859, amalgamated with the Hamilton & Northwestern Railway 1884, and was merged into the Grand Trunk Railway 1888.
The Lady Elgin, Ontario’s first locomotive, made for the O.S. & H.R., came in parts from Portland, Maine, 1852, traveled via Oswego, N.Y., and vessel to Toronto, and John Harvie, lately deceased in that city, was the first O.S. & H.R. conductor in charge of the train this engine pulled, Carlos McColl was the first driver and Joseph Lopez was the first fireman of that ancient locomotive. It was broken up and melted in 1881.
TOO MUCH NERVE TONIC
Timid Party—“This train seems to be traveling at a fearful pace Ma’am! I feel nervous.”