postponed a year as a result. The first regular transcontinental train from Montreal, Quebec arrived at a temporary terminus at Port Moody, British Columbia, in July 1886, and service to Vancouver itself began in May 1887. That year Vancouver's population was 1,000; by 1891 it reached 14,000 and by 1901 it was 26,000. The population increased to 120,000 by 1911. The Port of Vancouver became internationally significant as a result of its key position in the All-Red Route, which spanned the global trade network of the British Empire, with the combined steamship and railway of the CPR shortening shipping times from the Orient to London drastically, with the new city becoming a node for major speculative investment by British and German capital. The completion of the Panama Canal initially reduced Vancouver's shipping traffic by becoming the new preferred route from Asia to Europe, however reduced freight rates in the 1920s made it viable to ship even Europe-bound prairie grain west through Vancouver in addition to grains that already shipped to parts of Asia. Early 20th century Economy With the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914, Vancouver's seaport was able to compete with the major international ports for global trade because it was positioned as an alternative route to Europe. During the 1920s, the provincial government successfully fought to have freight rates that discriminated against goods transported by rail through the mountains eliminated, giving the young lawyer of the case, Gerry McGeer, a reputation as "the man who flattened the Rockies." Consequently, prairie wheat came west through Vancouver rather than being shipped out through eastern ports. The federal government established the Vancouver Harbour Commission development. With its completion in 1923, Ballantyne Pier was the most technologically advanced port in the British Empire. The CPR, lumber exporters, terminal operators, and other companies based on the waterfront banded together after World War I to establish the Shipping Federation of British Columbia as an employers’ association to manage industrial relations on the increasingly busy waterfront. The Federation fought vociferously against unionization, defeating a series of strikes and breaking unions until the determined longshoremen established the current ILWU local after the Second World War. By the 1930s, commercial traffic through the port had become the largest sector in Vancouver's economy. The rapid growth in automobiles and trucks after 1910 led to the construction of new bridges over False Creek including the Granville Street Bridge