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The Last Spike

A black and white photo taken in 1885, with over a hundred gentlemen in dark woolen suits surrounding one, Sir Donald A. Smith, who is poised above a piece of railroad track, wearing a top hat and holding a large hammer against the track, about to drive the last railroad spike for the Canadian Pacific Railway.

Library and Archives Canada C-003693 MIKAN 184631

In this most iconic of Canadian historical photographs, the Hon. Donald A. Smith is seen driving the commemorative last spike to complete the Canadian Pacific Railway, on the 7th of November 1885. Behind, beside and surrounding him stand railway owners, supervisors and labourers. Alexander Ross, photographer.