Charter, construction, and expansion , Montreal, 1859. The company was incorporated on November 10, 1852, as the
Grand Trunk Railway Company of Canada to build a railway line between Montreal and
Toronto. The charter was soon extended east to Portland, Maine and west to Sarnia,
Canada West. In 1853 the GTR purchased the
St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad from Montreal to the
Canada East – Vermont border, and the parent company
Atlantic and St. Lawrence Railroad through to the harbour facilities at Portland. A line was also built to
Lévis, via
Richmond from Montreal in 1855, part of the much-talked about "
Maritime connection" in
British North America. In the same year it purchased the
Toronto and Guelph Railroad, whose railway was already under construction. But the Grand Trunk Railway Company changed the original route of the T&G and extended the line to Sarnia, a hub for
Chicago-bound traffic. In October of 1856, the section from Montreal to Toronto opened, while the line from Toronto to Sarnia was finished in November of 1859. Also in 1859, a ferry service was established across the
St. Clair River to Fort Gratiot (now
Port Huron, Michigan). The Grand Trunk was one of the main factors that pushed British North America towards
Confederation. The original colonial economy structured along the water route from the Maritimes up the
St. Lawrence River and the lower
Great Lakes was greatly expanded by the duplicate route of the Grand Trunk. The explosive growth in trade during the 1850s within the
United Province of Canada and further east by water to the Maritimes demanded that a railway link the entire geopolitical region. During this time the GTR extended its line to Lévis further east to
Rivière-du-Loup. , Montreal, 1900s By 1860, the Grand Trunk was on the verge of bankruptcy and in no position to expand further east to
Halifax. On the eve of the
American Civil War, it stretched from
Sarnia in the west to Rivière-du-Loup in the east and Portland in the southeast. Colonists in the United Province of Canada, some of whom had experienced their territory being attacked by the United States fifty years earlier (in the
War of 1812), were uncomfortably close to the giant
Union Army and faced terrorist attacks during the mid-19th century in the form of
Fenian raids. Such security concerns led to demands for a year-round transportation system that British reinforcements could use should their territory be attacked during winter when the St. Lawrence River was frozen, and the only railway for British reinforcements to use would be the Grand Trunk connection at Portland, in the United States. Many citizens thought that the only way to finish the Grand Trunk – and protect the country – would be to unite all the colonies into a federation so that they could share the costs of an expanded railway system. Thus the
British North America Act, 1867 included the provision for an
Intercolonial Railway to link with the Grand Trunk at Rivière-du-Loup. , between 1895 and 1910 The end of the American Civil War saw British North America on the verge of uniting in a single federation, and the GTR's financial prospects improved as the railway was well-positioned to take advantage of increased population and economic growth. By 1867, it had become the largest railroad system in the world by accumulating more than of track that connected locations between its ocean port at
Portland, Maine, its river port at Rivière-du-Loup, the three northern New England states, and much of the southern areas of the new provinces of Quebec and Ontario. By 1880, the Grand Trunk Railway system stretched all the way from Portland in the east to Chicago, Illinois, in the west (by means of the
Grand Trunk Western Railroad between Port Huron and Chicago). Several impressive construction feats were associated with the GTR: the first successful bridging of the St. Lawrence River on August 25, 1860, with the opening of the first
Victoria Bridge at Montreal (replaced by the present structure in 1898); the bridging of the
Niagara River between
Fort Erie, Ontario and
Buffalo, New York; and the construction of a tunnel beneath the St. Clair River, connecting Sarnia, Ontario, and Port Huron, Michigan. The latter work opened in August 1890 and replaced the railcar ferry at the same location.
Heyday Common during 19th century railway construction in British colonies, GTR built to a broad gauge (
Provincial Gauge) of ; however, this was changed to the standard gauge of between 1872 and 1885 to facilitate interchange with U.S. railroads. To overcome the
gauge difference, the GTR experimented with a form of
variable-gauge axles called "adjustable gauge trucks", but these proved unreliable. at Portland, Maine, in 1906. The GTR system expanded throughout
southern Ontario, western Quebec, and the U.S. state of Michigan over the years by purchasing and absorbing numerous smaller railway companies, as well as building new lines. GTR's largest purchase came on August 12, 1882, when it bought the
Great Western Railway, running from
Niagara Falls to Toronto, and connecting to
London,
Windsor, and communities in the
Bruce Peninsula. The company sold the line along the St. Lawrence River between Rivière-du-Loup and Lévis in 1879 to the federal government-owned Intercolonial Railway (IRC), and granted running rights in 1889 to the IRC on trackage between Lévis and Montreal (via Richmond); however, the IRC's construction of a more direct line from Lévis to
Saint-Hyacinthe in 1899 saw most of this traffic transferred to that line.
Bankruptcy and nationalization As the dominant railway in British North America, GTR was reportedly asked by the federal government soon after Confederation to consider building a rail line to the
Pacific coast at
British Columbia but refused, forcing the government to enact legislation creating the
Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) to meet British Columbia's conditions for joining Confederation. By the early 20th century, GTR desired to operate in
Western Canada, particularly given the virtual monopoly of service that CPR maintained and the lucrative increasing flows of immigrants west of Ontario. The federal government encouraged GTR to co-operate with a local railway company operating on the
Prairies, the
Canadian Northern Railway (CNoR), but an agreement was never reached. CNoR decided to build its own transcontinental system at this time, forcing GTR in 1903 to enter into an agreement with
Wilfrid Laurier's government to build a third railway system from the Atlantic to the Pacific. GTR would build (with federal assistance) and operate the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway (GTPR) from
Winnipeg, Manitoba to
Prince Rupert, British Columbia, while the government would build and own the
National Transcontinental Railway (NTR) from Winnipeg to
Moncton, New Brunswick via
Quebec City, which the GTR would also operate. As part of this program, the federal government encouraged the GTR to purchase the
Canada Atlantic Railway (CAR) with lines southeast from
Ottawa to Vermont, and west from Ottawa to
Georgian Bay. The GTR took effective control of the CAR in 1905, although the purchase was not ratified by
Parliament until 1914. The routing of these systems was extremely speculative, as GTPR's main line was located farther north than the profitable CPR main line in the Prairies, and NTR was located even farther north of populous centres in Ontario and Quebec. Construction costs on the GTPR escalated, despite having the most favourable crossing of the
Continental Divide in North America at
Yellowhead Pass. GTR's cost-conscious president
Charles Melville Hays was one of the victims on board
RMS Titanic on April 15, 1912. His death is speculated to have contributed to poor management of GTR over the ensuing decade, and also contributed to the abandonment of the uncompleted
Southern New England Railway to
Providence, Rhode Island, begun in 1910. Construction started on the GTPR/NTR in 1905, and the GTPR opened to traffic in 1914, followed by the NTR in 1915. It was a transcontinental system, with the only exception being the NTR's ill-fated
Quebec Bridge, which would not be completed for several more years. The first indication the arrangement with the government was faltering came when GTR refused to operate the NTR, citing economic reasons. With the enormous cost of building the GTPR and the limited financial returns being realized, GTR defaulted on loan payments to the federal government in 1919. GTPR was nationalized on March 7 of that year, being operated under a federal government Board of Management until finally being placed under the control of the
Crown corporation Canadian National Railways (CNR) on July 20, 1920. GTR underwent serious financial difficulties as a result of the GTPR, and its shareholders, primarily in the United Kingdom, were determined to prevent the company from being nationalized as well. Eventually on July 12, 1920, GTR was placed under control of another federal government Board of Management while legal battles continued for several more years. Finally, on January 20, 1923, GTR was fully absorbed into the CNR on a date when all constituent companies were merged into the Crown corporation. At the time that the GTR was fully merged into CNR, approximately 125 smaller railway companies comprised the Grand Trunk system, totalling in Canada and in the United States. ==Accident==