The history of commerce is inseparably linked with the history of transportation. By 1915, three transcontinental railway lines had been laid coast-to-coast to take advantage of expanding traffic in raw materials, manufactured goods and immigrants. In addition to the C.P.R. and the Canadian Northern Railway, the Grand Trunk Pacific established terminal facilities on Lake Superior. From there it constructed a branch line to Sioux Lookout and the National Transcontinental's main line. The thousands of miles of new trackage for the transcontinental lines and regional railways, for branch lines, spurs and sidings meant that steel rails ranked high among the items transhipped at the head of the lakes.
Most Canadian tracks were laid with steel from England. In this photograph, steel rails are being unloaded off a ship from Newcastle. The rails are being slid and shoved from ship to dock and then to flat car by rail handlers, longshoremen who specialized in this onerous manual labour. Like other heavy stevedoring, rail handling was largely the preserve of foreign-born workers. At Port Arthur, the industry was monopolized by Finns.
Courtesy: Whalen Collection, Lakehead University Library
