The first public railroad, the Champlain and St. Lawrence Railroad, opened in Canada on July 21, 1836, according to Colin Churcher's Railway Pages website.
In 1852 the first railway between Canada and the United States was opened. It ran between Montreal and Portland, Maine, according to the Model Trains Museum website.
The Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) became the first coast-to-coast railroad system in 1889. Canada's two largest railway systems, the Canadian Pacific and the Canadian National Railway Company, are now both transcontinental.
CPR was devoted to the war effort during World War II, according to the Canadian Pacific website. During the war, the railroad moved 307-million tons of freight and 280,000 military personnel.
