The city was founded in the 1860s as a result of the wave of immigration during the Fraser Canyon gold rush and developed from a small sawmill settlement into a metropolis within a few decades after the opening of the transcontinental railway in 1887. The economy was initially based on the exploitation of British Columbia's natural resources: forestry, mining, fishing and agriculture. The port of Vancouver gained international importance after the opening of the Panama Canal. Today it is the largest in Canada and exports more goods than any other port in North America.