Lakehead terminal elevators: aspects of their engineering history

Massive grain elevators have been a dominant feature of the waterfront at Thunder Bay since 1883 when the first terminal was under construction. The earliest terminal elevators built by the Canadian Pacific Railway were constructed in the wooden crib technique on a pile foundation. By the turn of the century, the inadequacies of the crib terminals forced engineers to experiment with new materials and new design concepts for terminal elevators. Steel, tile, and reinforced concrete all came into use for terminal elevator construction between 1898 and 1903. By 1910, the plan of the elevator had evolved from a single building into four separate structures. The appearance of the typical Lakehead terminal elevator today is the result of these engineering experiments which occurred at the end of the nineteenth century and in the early years of the twentieth. Key words: grain elevators, concrete construction, slip forms, formwork, bins, silos, timber construction, crib walls, cribs, steel construction.