Which Canadian transcontinental railway was completed with a ceremonial Last Spike in 1885?

The Canadian transcontinental railway completed with a ceremonial Last Spike in 1885 was the Canadian Pacific Railway.

The Canadian Pacific Railway was built to link eastern Canada with British Columbia, helping fulfill a major promise made when British Columbia joined Confederation in 1871. Construction accelerated after the privately operated CPR company was formally incorporated in 1881, under the direction of railway executive William Cornelius Van Horne.

On November 7, 1885, CPR director Donald Smith—later Lord Strathcona—drove the final ceremonial spike at Craigellachie, British Columbia. The achievement was considered a remarkable engineering and political feat because crews had to cross the Rocky Mountains and build through difficult terrain, financial crises, labor disputes, and harsh weather.

The ceremony marked completion of the line, but regular transcontinental passenger service began later. The first such train left Montreal in June 1886 and reached Port Moody in July. A frequent mix-up is the United States’ Golden Spike ceremony of 1869, which completed the first U.S. transcontinental railroad; Canada’s comparable event involved the CPR in 1885.