Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume I

THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY. 259 MAP SHOWING MAIN LINES OF CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY. “3. That the greatest possible energy should be brought to bear on the work of exploration in the western region, in order to discover with as little delay as possible a practicable line for the rail- way through the Rocky Mountain zone — a line which would prove the shortest and least expen- sive, which would best serve the interests of the country, and lead to the most eligible harbour on the Pacific coast. “4. That the route for the railway through the prairie region, while con- necting with the line in the eastern and western sec- tions, so as to reduce the distance between Atlantic and Pacific to a minimum, should be projected to avoid the most formidable river crossings, and approach the rich deposits of coal and iron, at the same time to be con- veniently near the large tracts of land avail- able for settlement.” Early in July 1872 Mr. Fleming—as he was then—started with a small ex- Fleming ploratory expedition to cross crosses continent. He followed the Mountains. the route from ^P^011 the Dawson route to Lake of the Woods, reaching Fort Garry (now Winnipeg) {Copyright, Illustrations Bureau.) SIR WILLIAM VAN HORNE, K.C.M.G., Chairman of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company. on July 31. Thence by Forts Ellice, Carlton, Pitt, and Victoria to Fort Edmonton, where he arrived on August 27. By September 15 he had reached the Yellow- head Pass. Here he fol- lowed the Fraser River, and crossing over to Canoe River, descended the North Thompson River to Kam- loops, and so' down the Fraser River again to Van- couver Island and Victoria, completing his journey on October 11. One realizes what the existence of the railway means when we recollect that Victoria is now separated from Nepi- gon, not by three months but by three days. The line taken by Mr. Fleming on this first trip across the prairies and the Rockies was the route he eventually selected in preference to ten other alternative routes located by the surveys working under his direction farther north. It provided the easiest gradient to Burrard’s Inlet, and the expert opinion of the Pacific coast was solidly in favour of the terminus being in that neighbourhood, for both commercial and political reasons. The telegraph was actually completed as far as Edmonton, and it was not until the syndicate of capitalists, headed by George Stephen (now