John S. Metcalf, continued

The Grand Trunk Elevator (aka the Montreal Warehousing Company), Windmill Point, Montreal, designed and constructed by John S. Metcalf, between 1900 and 1903. Made out of steel and, no doubt, utilizing rectangularly shaped bins, this elevator could store one million bushels of grain. Small by comparison with other elevators made out of steel during the same period, the Windmill Point Elevator was clearly intended, not to store large amounts of grain in bulk (two or three million bushels), but to unload and transfer large amounts of grain from one form of vehicle to another.

Note in this regard 1) the stationary marine tower, designed to unload grain-bearing ships; 2) the line of rail cars extending into and no doubt being unloaded by the mainhouse; and 3), most important of all, the incredible system of horizontal conveyors that bring grain from the base of the marine tower -- as well as from the "backside" of the building, it seems -- to an area (beyond the edge of the picture) in which ocean-going vessels have room to dock and be loaded.