Railroads

Railroad Expansion
The first half of the 1800's the US had been busy build railroads, and in 1850 Canada caught up with the US. In 1853 Montreal and Portland, ME banded together to produce the St. Lawrence and Atlantic line which became the world's first international railway and pretty soon the railroad lines connected all the parts of Canada's provinces and within the Maritime provinces. The Grand Trunk Railroad was the largest railroad project of the time which was initiated in 1853 and connected Sarnia (Detroit area) to Quebec City and then to Portland. The Grand Trunk became the longest railroad in the world. The building of the Grand Trunk was very expensive and even though it had the government's support the project still went bankrupt. (GM

Also we had talked about in class about all the land that was westward of Canada and northwest or America the land had to start getting worked or they (america) would take it over. 1867 America purchased Alaska from Russia, meaning American now owned land on both sides of Canada. Canada was then said to be "afraid" of America. When the railroads were coming around, the majority of those working were Chinese labor workers.