Canadian Railroads > Grand Trunk Pacific first train to Pacific, April 1914

One hundred years ago this week, the first GTP transcontinental passenger train arrived at Prince Rupert BC, shortly after the "last spike" at Fort Fraser BC on April 7th,1914

The Grand Trunk Pacific was the last North American transcontinental rail line built, and existed as an in dependant entity for less than ten years, until the creation of Canadian National in 1923.

There is a strange parallel here to the Milwaukee Road. The GTP was in fact the "Pacific Extension" of a long established eastern Canadian railway , the Grand Trunk of Canada.

The GTP had a very brief existence, prior to bankruptcy and nationalisation into the CN in 1923. Much of the current CN main line from Superior Junction ON. to Red Pass BC was built as the GTP.

Charles Melville Hays, the GTP President lost his life as a passenger on the "Titanic" in 1912