An International Love-Feast at the Boundary
Washington and British Columbia celebrate the completion of the Fairhaven & Southern Railroad with silver hammers and toasts to a shared future.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The last stroke which united Washington and British Columbia by rail was struck today at the boundary line. Two silver hammers wielded by the wives of the Governor of British Columbia and the Acting Governor of Washington struck the finishing blows on four polished steel spikes. The gathering was an international love-feast; Americans and Canadians mingled in friendly greeting, and the imaginary line dividing them was for the time wiped out. About 3,000 people attended the ceremony. Acting-Governor Laughton noted that the line dividing the United States and Canada is but an imaginary one. Mayor Brown of New Westminster echoed the sentiment, stating that the people of the two countries were brothers in blood and language, and expressed hope that the relations would grow closer so that eventually, one might not be able to find the boundary line at all.
“The line which divides the government of the United States and the Canadas is but an imaginary one.”
This 1891 ceremony reflects a brief moment of optimism regarding cross-border rail and commercial integration in the Pacific Northwest. Today, the border at Blaine remains a vital, if more heavily regulated, artery of trade and culture between Seattle and the Vancouver metropolitan area.
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