Matthews, Northrup & Co's official railroad map (1890). The route of the New Westminster Southern is shown crossing the Fraser River to New Westminster although there was no bridge at this place and time (not until 1904). From the original 1885 terminus of the Canadian Pacific near Port Moody is their New Westminster branch line, completed before the first official train reached Vancouver in May 1887 (regular passenger service to New Westminster started in November 1886). Besides the Fairhaven & Southern the other American railway reaching the boundary, at Sumas City, is the north branch of the Seattle, Lake Shore & Eastern -- seen radiating from Seattle -- built to meet a branch line, begun in 1889, of the Canadian Pacific.

At the time of this map the F&S had already connected with the SLS&E at Sedro (not shown) northeast of Mt. Vernon. The F&S and NWSR were not connected until the latter built an additional half-mile of track to the boundary, the two railways officially joining on February 14, 1891 on the east side of Blaine (appearing here under its original name of Semiahmoo). On Vancouver Island is the Esquimalt & Nanaimo Railway, completed in 1886 to coincide with the Canadian Pacific's arrival on the mainland. Nanaimo was the site of the first steam railway in the Pacific Northwest, in 1863, when a line connected the area's coal mines to its harbor. The first railway in western Washington Territory began near Seattle in 1872, likewise used to haul coal from mine to tidewater.

Cram's railroad map of Washington (ca. 1891). In the larger version (1289 x 1235; 352K) the north branch of the Seattle, Lake Shore & Eastern can be seen as a solid line from Woodinville to Snohomish (completed in 1888) then dashed and, as if modified later, colored red to show completion of the railway to Sedro (which occurred in November 1890). Bottom-right is the main line of the Northern Pacific, the first transcontinental to reach Puget Sound, in 1887, cutting through the Cascade Mountains at Stampede Pass.

The Northern Pacific first connected with Puget Sound in 1884 via a coastal line from Portland, Oregon, which had seen the first northern transcontinental train arrive in 1883. The journey north from Oregon required a steamboat crossing to the Washington side of the Columbia River and a transfer of trains, connecting with a line that had been built to Tacoma in 1873; another Northern Pacific line, built in 1876, connected Seattle with nearby Black River (Tukwilla) although orphaned from the rest of its system. The railway would have a direct route to Puget Sound when the Cascade Branch through Stampede Pass was completed in 1887.

Although this 1891 map titled "The route of the Alaska excursion steamers" omitted the New Westminster Southern and the Sumas branch line of the Canadian Pacific (among others), it illustrates the primary lines in northwestern Washington at the time. The Great Northern's transcontinental, completed in 1893, had yet to reach Puget Sound: When the New Westminster Southern and Fairhaven & Southern officially connected at the boundary in 1891, passenger cars for the occasion had to be borrowed from the Seattle, Lake Shore & Eastern. In the late 1880's the SLS&E, a regional line serving Puget Sound logging areas, incorporated upon completion of the Canadian Pacific in 1885, began pushing tracks east of Seattle and west of Spokane (with the intention to meet) and north to the boundary. In 1888 the SLS&E ran out of money and was secured by the Northern Pacific, eventually absorbing the railway into its branch line system. From Anacortes to Hamilton is the Seattle & Northern, whose tracks in Sedro met the F&S and the SLS&E.

Rand, McNally & Co's official railroad map (ca. 1892). The Fairhaven & Southern line is now linked with Seattle via the GN-controlled Seattle & Montana Railway, running along nearly 80 miles of Puget Sound. Around this time, in mid-1892, the Great Northern's main line was pushing westward from Spokane, soon to connect with the Pacific Coast line from Seattle to the south bank of the Fraser River opposite New Westminster.

Inland, the branch lines of the Seattle, Lake Shore & Eastern (Northern Pacific) and the Canadian Pacific are finished to Sumas City, the last spike driven on June 22, 1891 after the valley's first bridge to join both banks of the Fraser River, at Mission Junction, was completed. From New Whatcom to Sumas City -- known as Huntingdon on the Canadian side -- is the Bellingham Bay & British Columbia Railroad, the third line to reach the boundary here (others would follow: the Vancouver, Victoria & Eastern Railway in 1909 and the British Columbia Electric Railway in 1910).