The railroad follows the route taken by the Yukon Gold Rush stampeders, along a narrow footpath clinging to the mountainside. The Canadian government required each stampeder to bring along one ton of goods, so each packed as much as he could for about five miles at a time, then stashed it and went back for another load. Each stampeder who succeeded in making the trip traveled some two thousand miles altogether, going back and forth until his entire load had crossed into Canada. The lure of gold was immensely powerful.

This railroad was completed in 1898 in an astonishing 26 months, answering the call of the Gold Rush. It is among only twenty engineering feats in the world—with the Panama Canal, the Eiffel Tower, and the Statue of Liberty—to have been declared an International Historic Civic Engineering Landmark.