The shores along lakes and rivers were often the most suitable routes for railway lines. Level, low-lying terrain free from major natural obstacles (especially steep grades and river crossings) offered the most inexpensive, if not necessarily the most direct, route.
Massawippi, Orford, Magog, Brome and other lakes were skirted by railway lines, as were such rivers as the St. Francis, seen here c.1905, with a portion of the Grand Trunk Railway alongside.
With the closure of many railway lines in the twentieth century, much of this valuable waterfront land was sold off for residential use.