Rand, McNally & Co's map of Washington (1895). In the larger version (1248 x 887; 272K) one can see a railway never built: the Burrard Inlet & Fraser Valley Railway Company, noted as the BI&FR from Sumas City to Vancouver. Evidently this was to be the Canadian section of a planned route from Bellingham Bay to the Canadian Pacific's terminus on Burrard Inlet using the Bellingham Bay & British Columbia Railroad which, like the Seattle, Lake Shore & Eastern, was chartered upon completion of the first Canadian transcontinental in 1885. The BB&BC would be completed to Sumas City to meet the Canadian Pacific around the same time, in 1891, that the SLS&E reached the boundary. Extending directly east of New Whatcom can be seen the seeds of another line, the Bellingham Bay & Eastern Railroad. Not shown on Vancouver Island is the recently built Victoria & Sidney Railway, which by the turn of the century would be in the hands of the Great Northern.

Gray's new trunk railroad map (ca. 1898) showing the main line routes of the Canadian Pacific (red) and the Great Northern (gold) transcontinentals, with portions of the Northern Pacific (green) below. From Spokane to Nelson is the Spokane Falls & Northern Railway and its two Canadian lines: the Nelson & Fort Sheppard Railway and (not shown) the Red Mountain Railway to nearby Rossland. In 1898 the Great Northern acquired control of the Spokane Falls & Northern from the Northern Pacific (which in turn was now firmly in the hands of the Great Northern).

Union Pacific's system map (1900), in an area where the company had no lines. The Great Northern's coastal main line from Seattle north through Everett (the railway's terminus) to the outer reaches of Vancouver, at Brownsville on the south bank of the Fraser River, was formed by the New Westminster Southern; Fairhaven & Southern; Seattle & Northern; and the Seattle & Montana. In 1898 these GN-controlled lines were merged, creating a unified system known as the Seattle & Montana Railroad. The Great Northern would not have its own all-rail route from Seattle to Vancouver until the New Westminster Bridge and the GN-controlled Vancouver, Westminster & Yukon Railway were completed in 1904. (Seattle and Vancouver were first joined by continuous rail in 1891, when the Canadian Pacific and the Seattle, Lake Shore & Eastern completed their branch lines to Sumas.)

Cram's map of Whatcom County, Washington (ca. 1907). The Bellingham Bay & Eastern, now in the hands of the Northern Pacific, allowing the railway access to Bellingham, can be seen wrapping around Lake Whatcom and connecting at Wickersham. The Bellingham Bay & British Columbia line is extended from Sumas City to the base of Mt. Baker at Glacier, with branches to Lynden and Northwood. The BB&BC, later known as the Bellingham & Northern, was subsequently sold to the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railroad ("Milwaukee Road"), but only connected to its transcontinental system -- built to Tacoma in 1909 -- via the waters of Bellingham Bay. (Select for a full-size view: 907 x 431; 106K)