Royal Commonwealth Society : Orchard Tunnel

Macmunn, Charles (1840?-1903)

Royal Commonwealth Society

<p style='text-align: justify;'>This photograph is part of an album which documents the completion of the most challenging final section of the Canadian Pacific Railway, the rugged Fraser Canyon to Eagle Pass segment. Work began in 1880 and entailed blasting tunnels through sheer granite canyon walls and building huge trestle bridges to connect the tunnels. The line, however, was completed to Savona on Kamloops Lake on June 29 1885, and the final spike in Canada’s first intercontinental railway was driven in at Craigellachie on 7 November.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>This print looks along the line towards a tunnel blasted through a rock outcrop that projects into the river or lake at the left of the print, which may be Kamloops. The photograph was taken by Charles Macmunn, a native of Manchester, England, who worked out of Victoria, British Columbia. In 1883 he advertised views of the Canadian Pacific Railway.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>See Janus record <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://janus.lib.cam.ac.uk/db/node.xsp?id=EAD%2FGBR%2F0115%2FY3069A%2F17'>here</a></p>