Vancouver Waterfront Railway Station

That beautiful column-supported building in front of you is the Waterfront Railway Station, owned by the Canadian Pacific Railway, one of Canada’s national railroad companies. Founded in 1881, it has over 20,000 kilometers of railroad, running from Vancouver to Montreal, serving 7 states and several major U.S. cities, including Minneapolis, Chicago and New York. The building you see here was built in 1914, following the style usually adopted by the Canadian Pacific in the other cities it operated in, and known at the time as the Gothic Railway style. But in 1978, a state corporation was created under the name Via Rail, and the country’s two main railroad companies transferred their stations and passenger services to Via Rail. The new company was given the Waterfront station, as well as the Pacific Central station, which belonged to Canadian National. Via Rail soon chose this second station, leaving our beautiful building to its fate. The last Via Rail train left the station on October 27, 1979. Not wanting to lose this ideally located heritage building, the city decided to turn it into a major transportation hub. You’ll find the Skytrain, the city’s subway system, as well as the Seabus, a ferry linking the city to North Vancouver, as well as regional express trains and scheduled buses. Today, Canadian Pacific is primarily a freight carrier, but this handsome building is a reminder of the company’s golden age, when it was Canada’s first transcontinental railroad, and the only means of long-distance travel across the country. This is also where you’ll find the beautiful “Angel of Victory” statue. This is a copy of the one commissioned for Montreal’s Windsor Station. It was built in honor of Canadian Pacific employees who lost their lives during World War I.