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This story was first published on Jan. 12, 2003, in the Montreal Gazette.

It was one of the most bizarre rail accidents in Montreal’s history and also one of the least auspicious. Bizarre, because the rails were laid not on terra firma but on ice across the frozen St. Lawrence. And inauspicious, because the accident came on the very first day of operations that winter.

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The Victoria Bridge was an undeniably magnificent response to the formidable, mile-wide barrier of the river at Montreal. Its opening in late 1859 gave shippers in the city easy rail access to the Atlantic, at Portland, Me. It almost seemed a miracle. Freight and passengers could now move between tidewater and the American midwest through central Canada even when the ice of winter shut deep-sea ships out of Montreal’s harbour for months at a stretch.

But the bridge was also a barrier in its own right. It was owned by the Grand Trunk Railway, and though other lines could use it, they had to pay for the privilege. Even then, their timetables had to cede priority to the Grand Trunk’s. Was there a way out of the dilemma, short of building a new rail bridge?