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William Cornelius Van Horne
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was born on a dirt farm
in Illinois.
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As a young man,
he was given the task
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of building the longest,
toughest wilderness railroad
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on the face of the earth,
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a task many considered
impossible.
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00:01:07,192 --> 00:01:11,821
They once roamed the earth
by the tens of thousands.
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Their whistles spoke
of distant places,
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of adventure and romance.
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00:01:19,538 --> 00:01:21,080
Abandoned for decades,
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what memories
might still be evoked,
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00:01:23,333 --> 00:01:25,126
what spirits conjured up
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00:01:25,127 --> 00:01:27,838
from an age left behind
so long ago?
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Their crews considered them
living things,
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00:02:28,315 --> 00:02:31,067
each with a unique personality.
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00:02:31,068 --> 00:02:34,570
Some were cranky and difficult;
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00:02:34,571 --> 00:02:37,240
others, good natured
and spirited.
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2816 has been resurrected
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00:02:48,460 --> 00:02:50,336
by the Canadian Pacific
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00:02:50,337 --> 00:02:54,924
in an extraordinary attempt
to illuminate history itself,
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00:02:54,925 --> 00:02:57,761
to summon the spirits
of the past.
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00:03:02,724 --> 00:03:05,476
They were explorers, engineers,
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00:03:05,477 --> 00:03:08,063
surveyors and guides.
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00:03:09,773 --> 00:03:12,316
They traveled by boat and foot,
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00:03:12,317 --> 00:03:14,945
packhorse and raft.
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00:03:18,115 --> 00:03:19,824
They passed through landscapes
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00:03:19,825 --> 00:03:22,035
the likes of nothing else
on earth.
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00:03:32,087 --> 00:03:35,423
They fell through ice,
slipped from cliffs,
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00:03:35,424 --> 00:03:39,553
died in rockslides
and were lost in rapids.
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00:03:50,647 --> 00:03:52,648
They followed countless rivers
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00:03:52,649 --> 00:03:55,986
and many a promising route
that ended nowhere.
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00:04:04,035 --> 00:04:06,996
For years, they searched
for an ideal passage
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00:04:06,997 --> 00:04:11,418
across the vast mountain
wilderness of western Canada.
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00:04:33,440 --> 00:04:35,524
Some worked too late
into the fall
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00:04:35,525 --> 00:04:38,361
and were ambushed by snowstorms.
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00:04:39,488 --> 00:04:40,863
Trapped in makeshift shelters,
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00:04:40,864 --> 00:04:42,656
they struggled
to survive winters
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00:04:42,657 --> 00:04:45,285
that could last over six months.
40
00:05:04,137 --> 00:05:06,639
After 20 years of exploration
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00:05:06,640 --> 00:05:09,725
spanning hundreds
of thousands of square miles,
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00:05:09,726 --> 00:05:11,977
at least 40 men had died
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00:05:11,978 --> 00:05:14,271
and still no ideal route
had been found
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00:05:14,272 --> 00:05:17,025
through the mountains.
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00:05:18,360 --> 00:05:21,403
The province of British Columbia
had joined Canada
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on the condition that it would
be connected to the east
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00:05:23,657 --> 00:05:26,493
by a transcontinental railway.
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00:05:27,619 --> 00:05:30,704
In desperation, the federal
government began construction
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00:05:30,705 --> 00:05:33,582
beside a small church
on the edge of the Fraser River
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00:05:33,583 --> 00:05:35,585
in the spring of 1881.
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00:06:26,219 --> 00:06:29,513
Departing from Vancouver,
what lies ahead is
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00:06:29,514 --> 00:06:33,142
one of the longest,
toughest railways on earth.
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00:06:33,143 --> 00:06:36,020
An extraordinary,
3000-mile journey
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00:06:36,021 --> 00:06:38,147
for a locomotive
that first turned a wheel
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00:06:38,148 --> 00:06:41,151
over 80 years ago.
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00:09:07,547 --> 00:09:10,090
The first few miles along
the Fraser River flood plain
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were easy going
for the builders,
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00:09:12,260 --> 00:09:14,678
at least,
until the line turned north
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00:09:14,679 --> 00:09:17,348
into the jaws
of the Fraser Canyon.
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00:09:22,145 --> 00:09:26,190
Hard granite walls towering
3,000 feet above the river
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00:09:26,191 --> 00:09:28,525
brought construction
to a painful crawl
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that would last over six years.
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00:09:54,552 --> 00:09:56,553
10,000 men worked
the Fraser Canyon
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in the early 1880s.
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6,500 were Chinese.
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They blasted night and day,
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drilling tunnels
into the granite rock,
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00:10:12,779 --> 00:10:15,782
carving roadbeds on the sides
of vertical cliffs.
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00:10:16,825 --> 00:10:19,576
Working with hand tools
and black powder,
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00:10:19,577 --> 00:10:22,580
they averaged barely
five feet a day.
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00:10:25,959 --> 00:10:30,046
In these canyons, six men died
for every mile of track laid,
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most of them Chinese.
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We can only glimpse
the courage of these men
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in the extraordinary work
they left behind.
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00:12:41,177 --> 00:12:43,220
By 1882,
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00:12:43,221 --> 00:12:45,681
construction moved out
of the Fraser Canyon
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and east along
the Thompson River
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00:12:47,850 --> 00:12:49,518
as the railway climbed inland
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up to the central plateau
of British Columbia.
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00:12:54,816 --> 00:12:56,692
Here the land becomes arid
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and the rock gives way
to softer sandstone.
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00:13:03,408 --> 00:13:05,867
It made for easier construction,
83
00:13:05,868 --> 00:13:08,954
but this barren desert
absorbs little water.
84
00:13:08,955 --> 00:13:12,040
Torrential rains erode
and sculpt sandstone cliffs
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00:13:12,041 --> 00:13:15,252
into hoodoos that can collapse
into mudslides,
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00:13:15,253 --> 00:13:17,463
and bury the line.
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00:13:41,571 --> 00:13:43,572
Here, engineers and tracklayers
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00:13:43,573 --> 00:13:46,074
encountered
a new set of obstacles
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00:13:46,075 --> 00:13:48,744
that could be neither
filled, nor bridged,
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00:13:48,745 --> 00:13:50,872
nor tunneled through.
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00:13:52,040 --> 00:13:54,750
When construction crews
arrived at these lakes,
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they fully intended
to bridge them and continue.
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00:13:59,881 --> 00:14:01,298
But when they dropped weights
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00:14:01,299 --> 00:14:02,883
attached to 400 feet of rope,
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00:14:02,884 --> 00:14:06,094
they never reached the bottom.
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00:14:06,095 --> 00:14:09,890
The lakes would be simply
too deep to cross.
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Trains would have to take
the long route around...
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As they do to this day.
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00:14:49,305 --> 00:14:51,932
Where the ground was flat
and the grades easy,
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General Manager Van Horne
pushed hard
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00:14:54,394 --> 00:14:56,019
to make up for time and money
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00:14:56,020 --> 00:14:58,272
lost in the canyons
and mountains.
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00:15:02,944 --> 00:15:04,736
They were Canadians, Americans,
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00:15:04,737 --> 00:15:07,365
British, Europeans, and Asians.
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They froze in bitter cold
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00:15:12,453 --> 00:15:14,204
and toiled
in fierce summer heat,
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00:15:14,205 --> 00:15:16,957
eaten raw by insects.
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00:15:16,958 --> 00:15:19,042
Yet, with bare hands,
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00:15:19,043 --> 00:15:22,171
they laid as many as six miles
of track every day.
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00:15:25,842 --> 00:15:28,218
In 1882,
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00:15:28,219 --> 00:15:30,595
nearly 500 miles of track
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00:15:30,596 --> 00:15:32,764
were laid in a single season...
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00:15:32,765 --> 00:15:36,017
A world record and a source
of enormous pride
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for the track crews.
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At the railroad town
of Revelstoke
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the canyons, lakes and deserts
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of the interior lay behind.
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Relatively easy going,
compared to the Selkirk
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00:16:59,727 --> 00:17:02,104
and Rocky Mountains
looming ahead.
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00:17:11,489 --> 00:17:14,783
General Manager Van Horne
was an amateur geologist,
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a talented artist,
and an accomplished violinist.
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Though he was best known
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as an all-night,
scotch-drinking poker player.
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00:17:27,838 --> 00:17:30,131
Perhaps his greatest
gamble, however,
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00:17:30,132 --> 00:17:33,010
lay in the route chosen
east of Revelstoke.
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00:17:35,012 --> 00:17:38,265
Van Horne, the CPR,
and the government
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00:17:38,266 --> 00:17:41,017
were anxious to keep
powerful American railroads
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00:17:41,018 --> 00:17:43,062
from moving
into Southern Canada.
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00:17:44,772 --> 00:17:47,524
There were two routes through
the mountains being considered:
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a northern route
recommended by the surveyors,
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00:17:50,486 --> 00:17:53,280
and a southern route
considered much more difficult
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by virtually everyone.
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A fateful, perhaps reckless,
decision was made,
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00:17:57,827 --> 00:17:59,995
by the railway and government,
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00:17:59,996 --> 00:18:01,746
to gamble
on this southern route,
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00:18:01,747 --> 00:18:04,166
where no passes
were yet known to exist.
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00:18:06,002 --> 00:18:09,129
An American surveyor
by the name of A. B. Rogers
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00:18:09,130 --> 00:18:11,923
had convinced many,
including Van Horne,
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00:18:11,924 --> 00:18:13,592
that he could find
a southern pass
140
00:18:13,593 --> 00:18:15,136
through the Selkirks.
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00:18:16,971 --> 00:18:19,139
The future
of the Canadian Pacific
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00:18:19,140 --> 00:18:22,017
was now in the hands
of two Americans.
143
00:18:22,018 --> 00:18:24,728
One, a brilliant leader
and gambler,
144
00:18:24,729 --> 00:18:28,524
the other, a stubborn surveyor
considered wildly eccentric.
145
00:19:41,305 --> 00:19:44,307
Rogers and his guides only
traveled in the spring
146
00:19:44,308 --> 00:19:47,936
and summer months up the western
face of the Selkirks.
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00:19:47,937 --> 00:19:50,230
Ominously,
they found no evidence
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00:19:50,231 --> 00:19:52,357
that humans of any kind
149
00:19:52,358 --> 00:19:55,111
had ever ventured amongst
these almost vertical slopes.
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00:19:57,738 --> 00:20:00,323
In the summer of 1882,
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00:20:00,324 --> 00:20:02,325
when Rogers declared
he had discovered
152
00:20:02,326 --> 00:20:04,577
a viable railroad pass,
153
00:20:04,578 --> 00:20:07,747
he did not fully appreciate
the nature of the beast
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00:20:07,748 --> 00:20:10,710
that would come
to bear his name.
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00:20:12,920 --> 00:20:15,088
When engineers and tracklayers
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00:20:15,089 --> 00:20:17,674
arrived the following season,
at the foot of the Selkirks,
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00:20:17,675 --> 00:20:19,718
they were appalled
158
00:20:19,719 --> 00:20:22,012
by what Rogers
had declared a pass.
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00:20:28,352 --> 00:20:31,146
They would have to build
massive looping trestles
160
00:20:31,147 --> 00:20:34,065
to give the railway distance
to lessen the steep climb
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00:20:34,066 --> 00:20:35,442
up the mountain face.
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00:20:35,443 --> 00:20:37,902
For the men working here,
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00:20:37,903 --> 00:20:40,281
it was a bad omen.
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00:20:43,325 --> 00:20:45,493
The trestles were frail,
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00:20:45,494 --> 00:20:47,662
and prone to fire in the summer
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and avalanches in winter.
167
00:20:52,793 --> 00:20:55,795
They were soon replaced
with stone pillars,
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00:20:55,796 --> 00:20:58,299
and eventually,
those too were abandoned.
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00:21:26,368 --> 00:21:28,495
In February of 1910,
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00:21:28,496 --> 00:21:31,164
the chief engineer
wrote to Van Horne:
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00:21:31,165 --> 00:21:33,792
"There has been
a terrible accident:
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00:21:33,793 --> 00:21:37,378
"many men died last night in the
valley of the Illecillewaet.
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The rest are afraid."
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00:21:50,810 --> 00:21:52,018
In the early years,
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00:21:52,019 --> 00:21:54,145
this short stretch of track
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00:21:54,146 --> 00:21:55,897
would threaten the very survival
177
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of the entire railway.
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00:22:04,657 --> 00:22:07,659
Some thought Rogers
had been more than eccentric.
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00:22:07,660 --> 00:22:11,455
His ego had led him to promote
a route of total madness.
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00:22:40,609 --> 00:22:44,070
Railway surveyors seek
the lowest possible route
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00:22:44,071 --> 00:22:45,280
through the mountains,
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00:22:45,281 --> 00:22:47,907
like the rivers
they often parallel.
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00:22:47,908 --> 00:22:50,660
In Rogers Pass,
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00:22:50,661 --> 00:22:52,912
they used side canyons
to build loops,
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00:22:52,913 --> 00:22:55,832
lengthening the line
to give trains more distance
186
00:22:55,833 --> 00:22:57,418
to climb the mountain.
187
00:23:06,594 --> 00:23:08,803
To lower the grade further
would require tunnels,
188
00:23:08,804 --> 00:23:11,931
at vastly greater expense.
189
00:23:11,932 --> 00:23:14,893
In 1914, work began
190
00:23:14,894 --> 00:23:17,103
on the five mile
Connaught tunnel,
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the longest in North America.
192
00:23:19,315 --> 00:23:21,649
This would reduce the grades
on the old route
193
00:23:21,650 --> 00:23:24,486
and hide the line
from relentless avalanches.
194
00:23:31,744 --> 00:23:33,703
The nine-mile
Mount McDonald tunnel
195
00:23:33,704 --> 00:23:35,830
followed in the 1980s,
196
00:23:35,831 --> 00:23:37,458
further reducing the grades.
197
00:23:40,711 --> 00:23:43,671
It would take the CPR 100 years
198
00:23:43,672 --> 00:23:46,090
and 14 miles of tunnels
199
00:23:46,091 --> 00:23:48,760
to finally escape beneath
the original line...
200
00:23:48,761 --> 00:23:51,388
The folly that was Rogers Pass.
201
00:24:57,204 --> 00:24:58,997
The deep cliffs and valleys
202
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of the eastern face
of the Selkirk Mountains
203
00:25:01,375 --> 00:25:03,085
were no easier for the builders.
204
00:25:06,880 --> 00:25:10,550
As trains begin the long, steep,
downhill journey,
205
00:25:10,551 --> 00:25:13,052
they will cross a series
of great bridges...
206
00:25:13,053 --> 00:25:14,971
At the time of construction,
207
00:25:14,972 --> 00:25:17,391
the highest in the world.
208
00:25:39,496 --> 00:25:41,831
At the eastern foot
of the Selkirks,
209
00:25:41,832 --> 00:25:44,959
the great steam trains
often paused for service
210
00:25:44,960 --> 00:25:47,170
at the railway town of Golden.
211
00:25:47,171 --> 00:25:49,465
The Rocky Mountains lay ahead.
212
00:26:02,061 --> 00:26:04,645
The inhabitants
of railroad towns
213
00:26:04,646 --> 00:26:06,189
once lived to serve
the appetites
214
00:26:06,190 --> 00:26:08,775
of the steam locomotive.
215
00:26:08,776 --> 00:26:11,652
Water, grease, oil,
216
00:26:11,653 --> 00:26:14,280
coaling, running repairs,
day and night,
217
00:26:14,281 --> 00:26:15,615
winter and summer...
218
00:26:15,616 --> 00:26:17,784
preparing them to operate
219
00:26:17,785 --> 00:26:19,453
at the limit of their power.
220
00:26:31,632 --> 00:26:33,633
The locomotive engineer
221
00:26:33,634 --> 00:26:36,178
was the folk hero
in the Age of Steam.
222
00:27:27,938 --> 00:27:30,273
On the modern railway,
there are two possible routes
223
00:27:30,274 --> 00:27:32,150
for eastbound trains.
224
00:27:32,151 --> 00:27:34,735
If the shorter main line
is blocked or damaged,
225
00:27:34,736 --> 00:27:36,779
trains can be diverted
on an easier route south,
226
00:27:36,780 --> 00:27:40,032
out of the mountains.
227
00:27:40,033 --> 00:27:43,953
By 1900, the railway sought
to relieve the pressure
228
00:27:43,954 --> 00:27:47,123
on the main line,
and the terrible grades ahead,
229
00:27:47,124 --> 00:27:50,793
constructing an alternate track
south, along the Columbia River,
230
00:27:50,794 --> 00:27:53,129
through a pass called
the Crow's Nest.
231
00:27:53,130 --> 00:27:55,006
But to an already long journey,
232
00:27:55,007 --> 00:27:57,342
it would add hundreds of miles.
233
00:30:16,273 --> 00:30:18,733
But soon after this
easy southern route was opened,
234
00:30:18,734 --> 00:30:20,943
the ultimate nightmare occurred
235
00:30:20,944 --> 00:30:24,364
on an April night in 1903.
236
00:30:48,889 --> 00:30:51,307
At 4:30 a.m., a freight train
237
00:30:51,308 --> 00:30:52,892
had just passed through
the mining town
238
00:30:52,893 --> 00:30:54,393
of Frank, Alberta,
239
00:30:54,394 --> 00:30:56,563
when much of Turtle Mountain
collapsed.
240
00:31:02,527 --> 00:31:04,779
The train's brakeman,
Sid Choquette,
241
00:31:04,780 --> 00:31:06,989
made his way in total blackness
242
00:31:06,990 --> 00:31:09,617
across rocks the size
of apartment buildings
243
00:31:09,618 --> 00:31:12,119
in a frantic attempt
to stop an express train
244
00:31:12,120 --> 00:31:13,955
coming from the east.
245
00:31:17,626 --> 00:31:19,960
At the last possible moment,
246
00:31:19,961 --> 00:31:22,923
he stopped the Spokane Flyer
bound for Washington...
247
00:31:25,175 --> 00:31:27,386
saving the lives
of hundreds of passengers.
248
00:31:29,638 --> 00:31:33,266
He received an award
from the railroad of $25.
249
00:31:36,770 --> 00:31:38,813
Roughly 90 souls
on the edge of town
250
00:31:38,814 --> 00:31:40,731
were not so lucky.
251
00:31:40,732 --> 00:31:43,735
They remain buried
under the slide to this day.
252
00:31:59,376 --> 00:32:00,793
There would be no easy route
253
00:32:00,794 --> 00:32:03,170
through these mountains
after all,
254
00:32:03,171 --> 00:32:05,756
but there is an easy stretch
along the Kicking Horse River
255
00:32:05,757 --> 00:32:08,426
before the greatest
challenge of all...
256
00:32:08,427 --> 00:32:11,012
The towering
Rocky Mountains ahead.
257
00:32:58,518 --> 00:33:01,520
The railroad town of Field
is at the foot
258
00:33:01,521 --> 00:33:05,066
of the steepest stretch
of track in the Rockies.
259
00:33:07,152 --> 00:33:09,111
In 1886, the Baldwin Locomotive
Works of Philadelphia
260
00:33:09,112 --> 00:33:13,949
designed a special series
of locomotives
261
00:33:13,950 --> 00:33:19,080
to help move heavy trains
up and down the CPR's Big Hill.
262
00:33:21,917 --> 00:33:24,251
These Consolidation-class
engines
263
00:33:24,252 --> 00:33:29,132
were enormously successful,
except for number 314.
264
00:33:40,727 --> 00:33:45,105
Descending the Big Hill in 1899,
265
00:33:45,106 --> 00:33:49,653
314 ran away and jumped
the track, killing its crew.
266
00:33:50,904 --> 00:33:53,113
Rebuilt and renumbered,
267
00:33:53,114 --> 00:33:56,075
but this time
climbing the Big Hill,
268
00:33:56,076 --> 00:34:00,288
it blew itself to pieces,
killing another crew.
269
00:34:06,127 --> 00:34:08,712
Repaired again, it worked
up and down the Big Hill
270
00:34:08,713 --> 00:34:11,006
for 30 more years,
271
00:34:11,007 --> 00:34:15,512
all the time feared
and despised by its crews.
272
00:34:53,967 --> 00:34:56,927
The 20 miles ahead remain,
to this day,
273
00:34:56,928 --> 00:34:59,179
among the most challenging
stretches of track
274
00:34:59,180 --> 00:35:02,142
in all of railroading.
275
00:35:54,444 --> 00:35:56,695
20 years
after the railway was opened,
276
00:35:56,696 --> 00:35:59,657
the terrible grades
on the Big Hill were reduced
277
00:35:59,658 --> 00:36:02,159
by one of the most famous
engineering projects
278
00:36:02,160 --> 00:36:05,496
in the history of railroading...
279
00:36:05,497 --> 00:36:07,457
The spiral tunnels.
280
00:36:11,378 --> 00:36:13,796
The tunnels give the line
additional distance
281
00:36:13,797 --> 00:36:16,883
to climb the steep western face
of the Rocky Mountains.
282
00:36:23,890 --> 00:36:25,891
Through both an upper
and lower tunnel,
283
00:36:25,892 --> 00:36:27,935
long freight trains cross
over themselves
284
00:36:27,936 --> 00:36:30,772
by looping around
inside the mountain.
285
00:36:49,833 --> 00:36:52,501
The Last Spike was driven
at Craigellachie
286
00:36:52,502 --> 00:36:56,630
in the fall of 1885...
An extraordinary accomplishment
287
00:36:56,631 --> 00:36:58,633
for the tiny new country
of Canada.
288
00:37:03,346 --> 00:37:04,888
But soon after
transcontinental trains
289
00:37:04,889 --> 00:37:06,808
began running from sea to sea...
290
00:37:09,144 --> 00:37:11,770
it was apparent the railway
had profoundly miscalculated
291
00:37:11,771 --> 00:37:14,899
one significant detail...
292
00:37:15,942 --> 00:37:18,069
Winter.
293
00:37:32,292 --> 00:37:34,293
Virtually no one
had ever ventured
294
00:37:34,294 --> 00:37:36,336
into Rogers Pass in the winter,
295
00:37:36,337 --> 00:37:39,548
and for good reason.
296
00:37:39,549 --> 00:37:42,426
It had among the deepest
known snowfalls in the world...
297
00:37:42,427 --> 00:37:45,305
As much as 60 feet
in a single season.
298
00:38:05,533 --> 00:38:09,912
On February 28, 1910,
a gang of 60 men were working
299
00:38:09,913 --> 00:38:12,706
to clear an avalanche
in the pass.
300
00:38:12,707 --> 00:38:15,125
At midnight,
another slide came down
301
00:38:15,126 --> 00:38:16,835
the opposite side of the valley
302
00:38:16,836 --> 00:38:19,505
and killed all but one.
303
00:38:19,506 --> 00:38:22,717
Most of the men were Japanese.
304
00:38:29,265 --> 00:38:34,228
At least 250 men would die in
avalanches in Rogers Pass alone
305
00:38:34,229 --> 00:38:35,980
in the first few years
of operation.
306
00:38:39,484 --> 00:38:42,277
When construction began,
few could have imagined
307
00:38:42,278 --> 00:38:45,490
the terrible sacrifices
the southern route would entail.
308
00:38:48,785 --> 00:38:51,245
The new railway
and the country itself
309
00:38:51,246 --> 00:38:53,789
hung on the thinnest of threads.
310
00:38:53,790 --> 00:38:57,167
The mountain sections were
ruinously expensive to operate
311
00:38:57,168 --> 00:38:59,878
and the company teetered
on bankruptcy.
312
00:38:59,879 --> 00:39:03,716
It would take a miracle to save
the Canadian Pacific Railway.
313
00:39:14,894 --> 00:39:17,479
A miracle did occur.
314
00:39:17,480 --> 00:39:20,274
Just over the top
of the Continental Divide,
315
00:39:20,275 --> 00:39:22,609
on the east face
of the Rocky Mountains,
316
00:39:22,610 --> 00:39:26,364
was a place the surveyors called
the most beautiful on earth.
317
00:39:27,657 --> 00:39:30,243
They named it Banff.
318
00:39:45,341 --> 00:39:47,092
The toughest route
through the mountains
319
00:39:47,093 --> 00:39:50,053
was also the most spectacular.
320
00:39:50,054 --> 00:39:52,931
This simple irony
would help save the railway
321
00:39:52,932 --> 00:39:55,351
and perhaps the country itself.
322
00:39:57,478 --> 00:39:59,646
A national park system
followed the railway.
323
00:39:59,647 --> 00:40:01,648
Banff, Lake Louise,
324
00:40:01,649 --> 00:40:06,153
Jasper, Glacier, Yoho.
325
00:40:06,154 --> 00:40:09,781
News of a wilderness Shangri-La
spread around the globe,
326
00:40:09,782 --> 00:40:14,495
and the company had a thriving
new business: tourism.
327
00:40:18,124 --> 00:40:21,543
Van Horne built
a series of great hotels,
328
00:40:21,544 --> 00:40:25,423
including the most famous,
at Lake Louise...
329
00:40:28,885 --> 00:40:32,137
followed by a fleet
of legendary passenger trains
330
00:40:32,138 --> 00:40:34,307
to bring in the tourists.
331
00:40:51,783 --> 00:40:53,784
From the summit
of the Rocky Mountains,
332
00:40:53,785 --> 00:40:56,787
the big-wheeled
Hudson locomotives ran down
333
00:40:56,788 --> 00:41:00,207
the long, fast mountain slope
to the prairie below.
334
00:41:00,208 --> 00:41:02,626
A hundred miles an hour
was routine
335
00:41:02,627 --> 00:41:05,421
for the great express trains
in the Age of Steam.
336
00:41:22,563 --> 00:41:26,150
As the railway grew and
prospered, the country followed.
337
00:41:27,443 --> 00:41:30,863
Trains brought in settlers,
opening up the land.
338
00:41:32,323 --> 00:41:34,282
They hauled produce to market,
339
00:41:34,283 --> 00:41:36,285
they built towns and cities.
340
00:41:48,548 --> 00:41:51,092
They took soldiers away
to war...
341
00:41:53,177 --> 00:41:56,054
remembered by those left behind
342
00:41:56,055 --> 00:41:58,433
by the sound of a lonesome wail.
343
00:42:29,672 --> 00:42:34,634
Van Horne's railway grew
into a vast network.
344
00:42:34,635 --> 00:42:37,888
The great express trains
flowed day and night
345
00:42:37,889 --> 00:42:40,057
across the high grass prairie,
346
00:42:40,058 --> 00:42:42,851
the granite shores
of Lake Superior,
347
00:42:42,852 --> 00:42:45,729
the rich farmland
of the St. Lawrence Valley,
348
00:42:45,730 --> 00:42:48,149
and finally down
to the seaport of Montreal.
349
00:43:05,625 --> 00:43:08,627
Van Horne completed
the impossible railroad
350
00:43:08,628 --> 00:43:11,339
in half the time
required by the contract.
351
00:43:12,465 --> 00:43:14,549
The son
of an American dirt farmer,
352
00:43:14,550 --> 00:43:16,718
he rose to become
one of the greatest figures
353
00:43:16,719 --> 00:43:18,763
in all of Canadian history.
354
00:43:28,898 --> 00:43:32,317
But here in Rogers Pass, in
the valley of the Illecillewaet,
355
00:43:32,318 --> 00:43:34,653
the legend of Van Horne
and his railway
356
00:43:34,654 --> 00:43:36,697
might have had
a much different ending.
357
00:43:40,243 --> 00:43:44,330
Their names are worn from wood
and stone and lost forever.
358
00:43:46,666 --> 00:43:49,042
They were young and strong.
359
00:43:49,043 --> 00:43:52,672
With bare hands they endured
unimaginable hardship.
360
00:44:16,571 --> 00:44:19,531
The route chosen
was nearly impossible,
361
00:44:19,532 --> 00:44:23,452
yet they had faith in the future
and they found a way.
362
00:44:25,705 --> 00:44:27,706
We know them only by the railway
363
00:44:27,707 --> 00:44:30,959
and the extraordinary country
they built:
364
00:44:30,960 --> 00:44:33,045
Canada.
364
00:44:34,305 --> 00:44:40,201
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