Canada’s golden spike

The Canadian coast to coast railway was completed on the 7^th November 1885. The government of British Columbia made it a condition of joining the Confederation rather than annexed to the U.S. that they be linked to the rest of the country by a railway by 1891. However the work was completed five years early thanks to the efforts of Cornelius van Horne and enthusiastic backer such as Donald A Smith who drove the final ‘golden’ spike. Which was in actual fact iron. The two sides of completed lines met at Craigellachie in the Rockies. The journey from Montreal to Port Moody BC took between five and six days.