Between 1896 and 1911 two new transcontinental railways were built in Canada and thousands of miles of track were laid to open up new resource areas. Immigrant workers provided the bulk of the labour force in isolated railroad and mining camps. The slide shows Italian workers engaged in railroad construction; many of these navvies were injured or killed by dynamite explosions and falling rocks. Because of the hazardous nature of the work and the squalid condition of the camps, a constant stream of unskilled immigrants was required by railroad contractors.
