British Columbia entered the federation in 1871 on condition a railway link be built to the colony, west of the Rocky Mountains, with the rest of the country.

In 1881, the Canadian Pacific Railway was given $25 million and 25 million acres of land to make the sea-to-sea link a reality.

The railway was finished in 1885, and along the way, construction of this and other railways, including the Timiskaming/Ontario Northland Railway to northern Ontario, revealed huge deposits of silver, copper and nickel, opening up the north to development in the early 1900s.