Bob Chaulk 232 pages softcover
An incisive illustrated history of the ill-planned and calamitous
construction of Halifax's railway from the author of Atlantic's Last
Stop.
Halifax in the early twentieth century had a problem. It was in the
wrong place in a thinly populated country, far from Canada's builders,
spenders, movers, and shakers.
Grumbling about the city's subpar performance in the movement of
goods, people, and mail had become a time-honoured pastime. Halifax was
the closest big Canadian port to Europe, but more than forty-five years
after Confederation, rail and shipping services to the city were not
making the grade.
Expectations were high on October 30, 1912, when the man who could
finally fix things, Frank Cochrane, the federal minister of Railways and
Canals, came to town to make a big announcement. The stars were aligned.
The question was, would the stars be bright enough to lead Halifax out
of its dormancy?
Over the next four years, dynamite and steam shovels would create
havoc, throwing hundreds of people out of their homes, devour four
hundred acres of prime municipal real estate, cover two huge swaths of
the harbour, annihilate two kilometres of shoreline, and cut a deep gash
eight kilometres long across the city?all to build a rail cut that
confounds transportation to this day.
Illustrated with photos and hand-drafted maps, Railroaded: The Untold History of Halifax's Rail Cut
is a story about how powerless citizens are when their elected
government decides it wants something they have, including their homes, in
a desperate grasp at a prosperous future.
