A while back I got an email from a reader who wanted to know a little something about the Canadian Bridge Company, another part of Windsor Industrial Heritage.
From the collection of Chris Edwards
The first batch of photos comes from the collection of Chris Edwards. Chris put together an exhibition on the Windsor works of Albert Kahn at the Art Gallery of Windsor, at the same time as my Windsor Modern Exhibition.
The building shown above was built in 1907, and was located on Walker Road. Today the Government Office (Immigration?) occupies the site.
From the collection of Chris Edwards
It was a nice looking structure, it almost reminds me of a school.
From the collection of Chris Edwards
In 1913, the office was expanded and another floor was added to the top of the building.
From the collection of Chris Edwards
You can see on these plans see the Customs Clearance stamp. Oddly the plans are dated, Feb. 21, 1913. While the customs stamp reads Feb. 25, 1912. Don’t tell me they were using a stamp with the wrong year on it for the first two months of 1913!
🙂
From the collection of Chris Edwards
As you can see the level of detail on the plans are outstanding. I could look at old blueprints for hours… They give you a great sense of the building as it was.
Above is a view of the Canadian Bridge Company from 1913. The company later became a division of the Dominion Steel and Coal Corportation which was dissolved in 1962 by Hawker Siddeley.
If you drive down St. Luke Street today, there are still parts of the plant still remaining in unaltered states.
My favourite parts are the massive steel overhead cranes in the yard.
Impressive parts of our industrial past. Anyone know if they are still used for anything?
The plant today is occupied by Valco Manufacturing, a division of Valliant Machine.
In Googling the Canadian Bridge Company, I came across a few interesting things:
The company, built the superstructure for the High Level Bridge in Edmonton
The historic St. Louis Bridge in St. Louis, Saskatchewan
The 1.6 km long High Level Bridge in Lethbridge, Alberta.
The company even got it’s own page on Structurae.de a online bridge and structure database from Germany.
And finally the one I found most interesting, the biography of Cornelius Langston Henderson, who was a design engineer for the Canadian Bridge Company from 1911 until 1958. Mr. Henderson graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in Civil Engineering in 1911. He was only the second African American to earn a Civil Engineer. Mr. Henderson unable to find work anywhere in the USA, found employment in Walkerville. He was a key engineer on both the Ambassador Bridge and Detroit Windsor Tunnel projects.
Anyone out there have any relatives who worked there? Anyone know when it closed?
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anyone know how to track down employment records for dominion bridge from way back...trying to track my grandfather mendoza gignac...thanks
my dad worked at canadian bridge until the mid 80s since 1949. he was a crane operator and worked in galvanizing. his name was leon busko. my brother and i attended grade school at st. annes a half block away from his work on walker rd. he would meet us at bettys corner store to buy us lunch at the monmouth rd. store. (it was demolished last year) or he would get us past the security guard and take us in for lunch at the plant. he was proud to show off his kids with the other workers. canadian bridge had a nice lawn bowling club across the street on the west side of walker road across from the plant. its now a small strip mall. canadian bridge also hosted the best picnics at Caboto or Holiday beach for their employees and families. great childhood memories. they even chartered an swa bus to get employees without transportation to the picnic. canadian bridge was a big part of windsor back in the 40s 50s 60s 70s. now the property in front of walker rd. is the lcbo subway macs etc. im glad to have been living in that time.
leon busko. remember the name. if anyone who worked at canadian bridge before 1978 has a memory they will remember my dad leon busko. he was a crane operator and galvanizer that everyone at canadian bridge knew. he was always there to help others in his job. may he REST IN PEACE. if you dont recall the name, you would know him instantly if you saw his face.
i have blue prints from 1935 of a building in ottawa by the canadian bridge co.the name of the building is called the departmental building block d' blue prints by jt grimwood.
canadian bridge. my father leon busko went to work there in the late 40s after coming to canada after the war and working literally as a slave on farms. canadian bridge was a good company at the time. paying better than the BIG 3, thats why he stayed. by early 80s hawker siddely at the time which bought canadian bridge SCREWED all employees out of most of their pension. the workers had to go to court to salvage some of their pension. hawker siddely were calloused unappreciative money hungry bastards that spit in the face of their loyal employees. i remember being young with my dad about to retire after all those years and seeing on his face the worry of not having a pension. im an adult now in my fifties, my father may he rest in peace, but i hope the greedy owners of hawker siddely have hell to pay for their selfishness. it was not a fairytale ending for the workers of canadian bridge. im bitter because hawker siddely management SCREWED so many dedicated loyal workers. i challenge hawker siddely management to refute my statements. they are cowards. fat cats that dont give a hell about their loyal employees. and remember it wasnt just my dad. most of them have died off now. my regret is that they could have had a way better retirement if not for these GREEDY SOBs.
canadian bridge. great company. hawker siddely. caloussed money hungry BASTARDS that deserve their place in HELL for stealing the pensions of so many profit making employees. my dad wasnt the only one. these RICH cocksuckers didnt give a fuck about their employees. their didnt give a fuck about them. THEY DIDNT CARE. AT ALL. AT ALL. AT ALL. employees working for almost 40 years getting screwed by HAWKER SIDDELY. these owners will pay for their greed in the next world. im sure that the fat cats that have died off by now are feeling the pain. AND I HOPE THEY LIKE IT HOT. it just didnt affect our family. too many friends of my dad felt the pain BIG TIME also. CANADIAN BRIDGE WAS GREAT. HAWKER SIDDELY, MAY YOU ROT IN HELL WITH YOUR MONEY ALONGSIDE JUDAS.
My father, James Halliwell worked at Canafian Bridge from 1974 to 1980. I recall their being a fire in the office building during this time.
i just watched canadian pickers on tv last night and they were in nova scotia and they bought a big bronze plate that had canadian bridge company , walkerville ontario. as soon as they said that i totally remember the bridge tower on walker rd when i was a kid.
The government office at 1250 Walker Road was built for Citizenship and Immigration Canada. They moved into the place in September 2003.
They signed another two year renewal in early 2014. It will be a government building for many more years.
My grandfather, Tom Woodruff, worked at Canadain Bridge as the finance director for many years, and moved to the Montreal DOSCO factory as GM in 1960 to 1964. During WWII, I believe my dad as a teenager worked at the Walkerville factory making ammunition boxes.