structure that operated until the late 1840s, when it was shut down due to its inconvenient location. Throughout the construction of the citadel, the general public was allowed to ride it as passengers, making it technically one of the earliest railways in Canada to carry passengers. A similar system, the Old Quebec Funicular, was later built in 1879 in a different location in the city. First railway boom The first Canadian railway, the Champlain and St. Lawrence Railroad, was opened in 1836 outside of Montreal, a seasonal portage railway to connect river traffic. It was followed by the Albion Railway in Stellarton, Nova Scotia in 1840, a collier railway connecting coal mines to a seaport. Heavy expansion of the rail system did not get under way until the Railway Guarantee Act of 1849 that guaranteed bond returns on all railways over 75 miles. This led to rapid expansion of railway in the Canadas, sometimes excessive growth as uneconomic lines were built since the government guaranteed profits. However, this proved disastrous for government finances, and the Canadas were all but bankrupted by the subsidies. The largest rail project of this period was also a disaster. The Grand Trunk Railway linking Montreal to Sarnia was finished in 1860, but was vastly mired in debt. In exchange for bailing out the company the government escaped its guarantee on the railway bonds. Transcontinental expansion Canadian Confederation was in part brought about by the railways. The local governments had all but emptied their treasuries building railways, and a new and more stable method of financing them was required. It was also believed that union would allow for the needed construction of railroads linking British North America. The Maritimes joined largely because of promises to build the Intercolonial Railway, and British Columbia only because of a promise to build a transcontinental railroad. The government had learnt its lesson and these railways were not funded by guarantees. Rather, the construction of the Intercolonial was fully controlled by the government under the direction of Sandford Fleming. The railway to the Pacific, the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), was financed by private funds and through massive land grants in the Canadian prairies, much of it of little value until the railway arrived, $25 million in cash and a guaranteed monopoly. The railway, then the longest in the world, was completed in 1885 to great fanfare. The booming Canadian economy after