A monument to an immense contribution!
Click on each picture for a closer look!
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Nestled in between the Rogers Centre and the railway corridor there is a powerful monument in the form of part of a railway trestle which acknowledges the contribution of thousands of Chinese railroad workers who were key to the building of the first railway across Canada. Here is the what is written on the plaque at this wite:
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Memorial to Commemorate the Chinese Railway Workers in Canada
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"Dedicated to the Chinese railroad workers who helped construct the Canadian Pacific Railway through the Rocky Mountains of Alberta and British Columbia thus uniting Canada geographically and politically.
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From 1880 to 1885 seventeen thousand men from the province of Kwangtung, China came to work on the western section of the railway through the treacherous terrain of the Canadian Rockies. Far from their families, amid hostile sentiments, these men laboured long hours and made the completion of the railway physically and economically possible. More than 4,000 Chinese workers lost their lives during construction. With no means of going back to China when their labour was no longer needed, thousands drifted in near destitution along the completed track. All of them remained nameless in the history of Canada.
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We erect this monument to remember them.
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September, 1989"
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Photos by Russ Milland, TRHA
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"Dedicated to the Chinese railroad workers who helped construct the Canadian Pacific Railway through the Rocky Mountains of Alberta and British Columbia thus uniting Canada geographically and politically.
.
From 1880 to 1885 seventeen thousand men from the province of Kwangtung, China came to work on the western section of the railway through the treacherous terrain of the Canadian Rockies. Far from their families, amid hostile sentiments, these men laboured long hours and made the completion of the railway physically and economically possible. More than 4,000 Chinese workers lost their lives during construction. With no means of going back to China when their labour was no longer needed, thousands drifted in near destitution along the completed track. All of them remained nameless in the history of Canada.
.
We erect this monument to remember them.
.
September, 1989"
.
Photos by Russ Milland, TRHA
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