Bytown and Prescott Railway Company

Photo by Alan L Brown - June 13, 2004

Plaque Location

The County of Leeds and Grenville
The Town of Prescott
On the south side of King Street opposite Fort Wellington

Plaque Text

This company, incorporated in 1850, built a railway from Prescott to Bytown (Ottawa) for the shipment of lumber and farm products to the markets of the north-eastern United States and Montreal. Substantial funds were raised at Bytown, Prescott and other municipalities along the line. In 1851, Walter Shanly, Chief Engineer, started construction, and a train first ran from Prescott to Bytown on Christmas Day, 1854. The railway, renamed the Ottawa and Prescott in 1855, was the first to serve the nation's future capital, giving it access at Prescott to the St. Lawrence River and the Grand Trunk Railway. In 1867 it became the St. Lawrence and Ottawa Railway and in 1884 was leased to the Canadian Pacific Railway for 999 years.

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