The Sarnia Observer and Western Advertiser
May 4, 1854
The Grand Trunk Railroad
The following, intended for the information of the British public, is taken from a late number
of the London Morning Advertiser; Montreal feb. 20
I promised, in my last weeks communication, to forward you a few particulars with
reference to the Grand Trunk Railroad, its progress, and its prospects, feeling assured, from
the English correspondence I have received on the subject, that this vast undertaking is watched
in the British metropolis with much interest, and if possible, more in a social than commercial
point of view. It is at this moment totally impossible to predict the changes and consequent
benefits to the colony which the running of this line will accomplish,spanning as it does the
whole length of the two provinces, besides providing an outlet to the Atlantic Ocean for the
produce of the Western States, which now as a great measure finds its way through its southern
neighbor’s territories.
I am well aware that in the midst of the present political difficulties, it is
no easy task to discuss the question of social improvement, whether at home or in the colonies;
but I am equally alive to the fact, that when war does break out – which now appears inevitable,
and which even threatens an immediate outburst, – there will be thousands of persons who will at
once withdraw their Continental investments to deposit them in some other and safer
security. To what point of the globe, then will they turn to find so great a desideratum as a
safe investment in these times of approaching war. Certainly not the Eastern side of the
Atlantic. America then, and that of British North America, must be most naturally pointed at as
being the oasis in the desert. Here a thousand different works are being pushed on with vigor,
which, when completed, will yield to their supporters a far higher rate of premium than has been
obtained for similar securties in the Old Country for many years past.
And amongst others I would certainly place the Grand Trunk Railroad as the first on the
list. To give an idea of the vastness of this work, I may mention that it engrosses the traffic
of a region extending 800 miles in one direct line, from Portland to Lake Huron containing a
population of nearly three million in Canada, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. And before
proceeding further, it would be well to observe that it is for the whole of its length,
protected from possibility of injurious competetion not only by Legislative enactment but by
what is of greater security against rail lines – viz: natural causes. To continue then at
Portland, it connects with the system of railways reaching eastward to the Province of New
Brunswick, and hereafter to Halifax in Nova Scotia, as well as southward, by lines already
existing to Boston and New York. At the frontier of Canada it again unites with other lines to
Boston and the great manufacturing districts of New England. From Richmond it runs eastward to
Quebec and Trois Pistoles, 253 miles giving direct access to the great shipping port of Canada
in summer; and hereafter by rail to the Atlantic at Halifax, by Trois Pistoles and Mirimichi,
forming the only route to the great fisheries of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and the eastern
timber, coal, and mineral district of New Brunswick. At Montreal it again meets three railways
now in operation to Boston and New York. At Prescott it receives the tributary line from Bytown
and the vast timber districts of the Ottawa, 60 miles, now in course of early completion; and on
the opposite side of the St. Lawrence, the Northern New York road to Ogdensburgh will pour its
stream of passenger traffic upon the trunk line. At Kingston the Rome and Cape Vincent Railroad,
also from New York, becomes its tributary. From thence to Toront it receives the entire produce
of the rich country north of Lake Ontario through the channels of the Belleville and
Peterborough branches, and several other new lines already in progress of construction, and all
tributary to the main trunk road. At Toronto the Ontario, Simcoe and Huron Railroad, 100 miles,
now nearly finished, pours off the traffic of the region around Lake Simcoe and the Georgian
Bay. At the same point is also met the Great Western Railway, by Hamilton to Detroit, 240 miles,
now in a forward state of completion, by which communication is had with the southern part of
Western Canada, as well as with the railways in operation from Detroit to the States of
Michigan, Illinois and Wisconsin. From Toronto westward, the line passing through the heart of
the western penninsula of Canada insures to the Grand Trunk the exclusive traffic of the finest
part of the province; while at its terminus at Sarnia it debouches at the very outlet of Lake
Huron, avoiding the Shallows of the Detroit and St. Clair rivers below — a point the most
favorably situated for the navigation extending through the Lakes Huron and Michigan, and
hereafter through Lake Superior. At Sarnia the American railroads now in course of construction
place the Grand Trunk Line in the most direct communication with the arterial lines to the Great
West and the Mississippi, a region whose advance in population and wealth has been regarded as
almost fabulous, and yet whose resources are still very partially developed; while the traffic
of the copper and iron districts of Lake Superior, the most valuable and extensive in the world;
with the coal ov Michigan, will accumulate on the railroad at this point, reaching ocean and
navigation at Montreal in much less time; and by the same milage, than it can now pass by boat
to the waters of Lake Ontario, 350 miles above that city. It will therefore be seen that the
road commencing at the debouchure of the three largest lakes in the world, pours the
accumulating traffic in one unbroken line throughout the entire length of Canada, into the St.
Lawrence at Montreal and Quebec, on which it rests at the north, while on the south it reaches
the magnificent harbors of Portland and St. John’s on the open ocean. The whole future traffic
between the western regions and the east, including Lower Canada parts of the States of Vermont
and New Hampshire, the whole of the State of Maine and the Provinces of New Brunswick, Nova
Scotia, Prince Edward’s Island and Newfoundland, must, therefore, pass over the Grand Trunk
Railroad.
Another feature in connection with the road, and which cannot fail to produce summer
traffic, will be the Montreal Victoria Tubular Bridge, which, when, erected, will be the
greatest achievement of engineering skill yet accomplished on either side of the Atlantic. Thus
far have I endeavered to give a faint outline of the country this line is to be carried through.
Its contractors are Messers. Pete, Brassey, Betts, and Jackson; its Directors are some
of the first men in Canada; in London its Directors are |Messers. Baring, Glyn, McCalmont,&c.,;
and its managers are Sir C.P. Roney, Mr. Alexander Ross, and Mr. S.P. Bidder, men who have been
engaged for the last 20 years either in the construction or management of railroads. Having
this much of the prospects of the unfinished portions of the road, I have now to draw your
attention to the section which is at present open and working, and also to the sections which
will be opened in the ensuing spring. The line at present open extends from Montreal to
Portland a distance of nearly 300 miles; and in the course of a couple of months the line
between Montreal and Quebec will be completely finished. It is right to remark that had it not
been for the disastrous shipwrecks of last autumn, this road would have been opened last year;
but as four vessels, which were laden with iron for the bridges &c., along the road, went to the
bottom of the sea, the delay could not be avoided. I am given to understand that already
contracts have been entered into for the conveyance of the enormous amount of two hundred
thousand superficial feet of timber daily from one district alone.
