Bellingham Bay and British Columbia Railroad

Bellingham Bay and British Columbia Railroad was a railroad that was built in the northwestern part of Washington, between the town of Whatcom, now Bellingham, then to the town of Sumas, to connect with the Canadian Pacific Railway for a continental connection.

The company was incorporated in California on June 21, 1883. After the Northern Pacific Railroad chose Tacoma over Whatcom on Bellingham Bay, local railroad boosters along with Pierre B. Cornwall at their head started the B.B. and B.C. Railroad in 1883.

The company was capitalized for $10,000,000, with its aim to build a line from Bellingham (then known as Whatcom) to Burrard Inlet now located in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, a distance of about 56 miles. The company owned a town site and about 4,000 acres (1,600 ha) in the Bellingham area.

Construction began in 1884 with much activity, then soon slowed. After reaching Whatcom Creek, it headed towards Sumas, Washington, to a connection, also being slowly built in Canada. At that time the Canadian Pacific Railway was working very hard over the Canadian Rockies and down the Fraser Valley.

By 1889, the line was still slowly pushing forward towards the Canada–United States border, while another road, the Fairhaven and Southern Railroad, was pushing south from Fairhaven towards Skagit County and planned a connection with the northbound Northern Pacific Railroad.

But construction soon continued and the road was graded further north with materials en route by ship, and reached the Canada–US border in 1891 and several weeks later the Canadian Pacific Railway reached the border.

More lines were completed and by 1902, lines to Glacier, Washington and Lynden Washington had been built as were other short lines to numerous logging camps. Signs of these old roads can be found throughout the county. Another spur headed east of the former township of Goshen, Washington, crossed the Nooksack River just east of the Mt. Baker highway then crossed the Northern Pacific Railway tracks, through the town of Deming, Washington and ended near the township of Welcome.

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