I've been looking around and I found little info on what was used to create the ALGOL 58 compiler. Was the compiler created similar to FORTRAN in that they used physical cards to create it?
Sure they used physical cards, because it was most practical at the time. Either you punched cards (have done so myself) or you set switches (even less efficient...) Paper tape was used as well, but the fun with punched cards is that you could punch a lot of ; in advance, in case you forgot one and the puncher was occupied... But that hasn't much relation with what language it was written in. I am almost certain it was assembly.