Trans-Canada Highway
The Trans-Canada Highway is a monumental infrastructure project that stretches approximately 4,860 miles, making it the world's longest national highway. Established through the Trans-Canada Highway Act of 1949 under Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent, its construction began in 1950 and took 17 years to complete. The highway was designed to link all ten provinces of Canada, although ferry services are required for access to the island provinces of Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island. Officially opened by Prime Minister John Diefenbaker on September 3, 1962, the project was a significant financial undertaking, costing C$300 million—more than the contemporaneous St. Lawrence Seaway project. It not only facilitated national connectivity but also symbolized a shift toward automobile reliance in postwar Canada, marking a decline in the prominence of rail transport. The highway was celebrated as Canada’s "Second National Dream," reflecting its cultural and historical importance. Despite the initial cost-sharing agreements, the federal government ended up funding up to 90 percent of some highway sections, highlighting the project’s significance to national identity and infrastructure development.
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Trans-Canada Highway
Identification World’s longest national highway, running between Victoria, British Columbia, and St. John’s, Newfoundland
Begun in 1950; opened on September 3, 1962
The Trans-Canada Highway represented an effort at national unity but also served as an important aid to Canadian commerce.
With the 1949 passage by the government of Prime MinisterLouis St. Laurent of the Trans-Canada Highway Act, which set out the shared funding arrangement between the federal government and the ten provincial governments whose territory it crossed, Canada began a seventeen-year process that would see the creation of the world’s longest national highway at 4,860 miles.
The highway, the construction of which officially began in 1950, was a massive undertaking and, at C$300 million, more expensive than the construction of the St. Lawrence Seaway , which was built during the same period. It linked all of the provinces of Canada in the process (although the island provinces of Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island also required ferry journeys) and, reflecting its importance as a national symbol, was hailed by contemporaries as Canada’s “Second National Dream” in reference to the transcontinental railroad built in the nineteenth century.
Although the entire highway was not completed until 1965, Prime Minister John Diefenbaker officially opened it on September 3, 1962. Despite an agreement to split the cost of its construction between the federal and provincial governments, in the end the former paid up to 90 percent of the cost of some sections of the highway.
Impact
A major undertaking, the highway served the purposes of bolstering nationalism but also offered an indication of the increasing significance of the car in the affluence of the postwar years and, in turn, the decreasing importance of the railroad as a means of transportation.
Bibliography
McCourt, Edward A. The Road Across Canada. London: John Murray, 1965. Chronicles the development of the highway.
Monaghan, David W. Canada’s “New Main Street”: The Trans-Canada Highway as Idea and Reality, 1912-1956. Ottawa: Canada Science and Technology Museum, 2002. Details the history, including government policy and the design and construction, of the project.