Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume I

276 ENGINEERING WONDERS OF THE WORLD. factory during 1884, after which, year it was moved to the Columbia Valley. The summit of the Rockies in the Kicking Horse Pass is the highest altitude touched by the road, the little station named Stephen River into Hudson Bay, while those of the other, with many leaps and windings, eventu- ally reach, the Pacific Ocean. The scenery around is sublime, almost terrible. On the shoulder of Mount Stephen hangs a vast shin- THE “ GREAT DIVIDE,” AT THE SUMMIT OF KICKING HORSE PASS. (Photo, C.P.R. Company.) The trench marks the boundary between Alberta and British Columbia. being 5,321 feet above sea-level. Here is the boundary line between Alberta and British Columbia, marked by a rude rr,i_ 17 , „ e but picturesque arch built of “Great . r . Divide ” P°les> proclaiming m wooden letters the fact that this is the “ Great Divide.” A sparkling stream- let of water separates into two branches, the waters of one branch flowing eastward down the Bow River into the Saskatchewan, and so through Lake Winnipeg and the Nelson ing green glacier nearly 1,000 feet in length, and showing on its outer edge a vertical depth of approximately 100 feet. The difficulties which nature placed in the way of the engineers in the Kicking Horse Pass were complicated by the political situation. British Columbia, which had entered the Dominion on the under- standing that the transcontinental railway should be completed within a certain date, was threatening to secede, owing to the non- fulfilment of this compact. The descent of the