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?
Those photos bring back a lot of memories. I worked there during summer vacations and full time for a while after I finished high school. Valco Mfg. used to be Plant 2. The steel fabricated here produced huge hydro electric towers. Sitting on a stack of steel under those overhead cranes, I watched huge plumes of smoke rising over Detroit and learned from someone with a radio that there was rioting in the streets over there.
Plant 1 was separated from Plant 2 by a feeder rail line. Here I worked on a riveting gang putting pieces together for a bridge being built for Expo 67 in Montreal. I even worked in the office building for two weeks when the janitor went on vacation. It really did look like a school, didn’t it?
Wow! Great find! Thanks to you and Chris from Walkerville Publishing for giving us such info.
I have a picture in my office of workers making the plate steel that was used in building the Ambassador Bridge at that very plant. Courtesy of Chris once again.
Compare that beautiful building, and most other older gov’t buildings with the turd that sits on the site now. What a shame.
Of interest is the awnings over most windows back then. In these days of the “green movement” I wonder why more offices don’t incorporate these cloth awnings anymore? They sure do cut down on air conditioning costs when used on the warmer but not extremely hot days.
Your right Andrew, Citizenship and Immigration Canada and the Canada Border Services Agency occupy the old Canadian Bridge Co. office site today. An ugly building now.
How about those two large steel structures that used to stand near the corner of Walker and Ottawa? You could see them from miles away. Were they in any way related to the Canadian Bridge Co./ Dominion Steel? I always thought they were strange.
Good story Andrew! This is another story that reminds us on how the city has lost its industrial based and diversified industries. I will not speculate on how the city got to this state…
Dominion Forge, although auto related was another heavy industry that ‘hit the road’.
I recall driving down Walker Road in the 50s as a young lad in tow by my mom who was going shopping on Ottawa Street…. when this street was a popular shopping district and before the K-marts and shopping centres came into being. Walker Road had many industries…. including a pharmaceutical plant. Where have all these industries gone…. and why?
I remember those two large steel structures as well. I was always told that they were used to build the bridge, but I dont know how accurate that is… They were a sort of landmark, letting you know what part of the city you were in. One looked like a “T” and the other, if my memory serves me, looked like an upside down lower case “j”, and it was a bit smaller.
is plant 1 still around? or demolished
My father worked for Canadian Bridge from approx. 1935 to 1975. Sometime after his retirement, the company ceased to exist and pensions were transfered to annuities. The structures at the end of Ottawa street were built to test the transmission towers that the company built. I understand that they were built with some financial assistance from senior government and this was the reason that it took some time for them to be demolished.
Does anyone know where one could find drawings of communication towers built by Canadian Bridge?
Nate…if you know anyone at Hydro One, in engineering, there are reams of them available. You wouldn’t be in the tower industry…would you….VHF perhaps?
Manitoba Telephone currently owns the tower but does not have any specs or drawings for it. Thanks for the reply, I am trying my contacts at Hydro One now.
I do work with a lot of communication towers for sure, mainly with the SHF range though.
Nate, I was referring to a Company in Elmira called “VHF Construction”. I have a neighbor named Nate who works for them and thought it was you!
Apparently Mr. J.A. Pretty of the Company was superintendent of construction for every steel bridge built on the main line of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway between Winnipeg, through Edmonton, to Tete Jeune Cache BC. Obviously the Company supplied the steel for these bridges which were built between ca 1905 and 1911.
that’s quite the contract! GT should’ve took the contract to build that whole ribbon of iron across the country when it was offred to them. They’d be in CP’s shoes today if they had.
I worked for Canadain Bridge for 2 years i didn’t work really hard i can’t remember what plant it was i worked in but we were building hydro tower sections that were put into railroad cars and shipped out west i remember i had to enter the plant off st luke road to punch in but worked in the other plant closer to walker rd great bunch of co workers
Interesting. Ran across your site while following leads on bridges in Northern Ontario. If you ever go to Manitoulin Island by road then you cross a Canadian Bridge Company construction at Little Current. The swing bridge is still a tourist attraction when it opens for boat traffic. 97 years old and still swinging. The following site give some of the history.
http://www.magma.ca/~morcomp/lcswing.html
I worked at the former canadian bridge company from 1983 -1988. It was hawker siddeley canada at the time.We built log skidders,which are very large tractors in the forestry industry.The were called tree farmers.All the fabrication was done in windsor frames, dozer blades,buckets and then shipped to Alabama for assembly.Free trade came in and we closed they moved the fabrication to Alabama.My father worked there for 39 yrs. Retired in 1986,Plant 1 was on walker road plant 2 was off st.luke. Plant number two had the tower shop where they used to fabricate and galvanize the steel required for the hydro towers being built.Then it was shipped out and set up by the erection crew (a crew of men that erected the towers in the field).Those 2 towers on the property that someone spoke of in another post were called the test towers.They would assemble a hydro tower on the site and rig it with cables to the test towers and bend them literally like banannas for strength testing.The tower shop closed in 1975.There are still a few of the old guys out there that I havent spoken to in a number of years ,but are still alive in their 80’s and 90’s that i worked with. In regards to plant number 1, I dont no to much about it as it was a very old building going back to the 1800’s and they used to use horses to move steel and stuff. The ambassador bridge was partly built by the canadian bridge company and mostly every train bridge in Canada from the 1800’s up to the 1900’s as well.The mackinac bridge railings were built by the c.b.c. as well.
I worked at the former canadian bridge company from 1983 -1988. It was hawker siddeley canada at the time.We built log skidders,which are very large tractors in the forestry industry.The were called tree farmers.All the fabrication was done in windsor frames, dozer blades,buckets and then shipped to Alabama for assembly.Free trade came in and we closed they moved the fabrication to Alabama.My father worked there for 39 yrs. Retired in 1986,Plant 1 was on walker road plant 2 was off st.luke. Plant number two had the tower shop where they used to fabricate and galvanize the steel required for the hydro towers being built.Then it was shipped out and set up by the erection crew (a crew of men that erected the towers in the field).Those 2 towers on the property that someone spoke of in another post were called the test towers.They would assemble a hydro tower on the site and rig it with cables to the test towers and bend them literally like banannas for strength testing.The tower shop closed in 1975.There are still a few of the old guys out there that I havent spoken to in a number of years ,but are still alive in their 80’s and 90’s that i worked with. In regards to plant number 1, I dont no to much about it as it was a very old building going back to the 1800’s and they used to use horses to move steel and stuff. The ambassador bridge was partly built by the canadian bridge company and mostly every train bridge in Canada from the 1800’s up to the 1900’s as well.The mackinac bridge railings were built by the c.b.c. as well. There ia a lot of history for this company in windsor and if anyone requires any additional info contact me and will do what i can…
My grampa Ed Greenshields worked for them. He was a foreman i believe. He helped build the bridge and tunnel in Windsor. My mom said he always had a job even during the depression. He always told me he could get me a job there. My fear of heights pretty much ruled that out.
Seeing the picture of the Dominion Brige Office Building brought back memories of travelling north on Walker Road and smelling the fresh bread being made at Canada Bread that was located just north of Richmand street past the electical sub station and the Fire Hall all on the West side of Walker Road. If I remember correctly the Office building was on the west side of Walker Road between Ottawa St and Ontario St. and south of the office building they had tennis courts that always seem to be busy as we passed by. The east side of Walker accross from the office building had the manufacturing building and a huge outside storage area along with the towers that have been mentioned where they assembled towers prior to shipping them out on flat cars you could see them building them then disassembling them Those where great days and a lot of memories still exsist from back then.
My Dad worked fro Canadian Bridge as a draftsman from about 1945 or so until the shut down in 1980. There was an white one story addition to the west of the original building that became the used office space and the original building was essentially storage. The lawn bowling greens the company built were between this building and the old Bank of Montreal building at the corner of Walker Road and Ottawa Street.
When they were winding down operations I was able to get some of the original drawings in ink on linen of some Welland Canal bridges and some blueprints of various railroad structures. I should have grabbed the many folders containing the drawings for the upgrading of the CPR Stoney Creek Bridge. I have forwards the urls to my Dad and maybe he can comment.
Canadian Bridge also built the old CKLW TV transmission tower that was on Riverside Drive and the original CKVR TV tower in Barrie that was destroyed when a plane hit it in 1977
gORD I REMEMBER THAT BAKERY YOU MENTIONED THEY HAD A RETAIL STORE AND YOU COULD BUY DAY OLD BREAD AND OTER BAKED GOOD FOR ALMOST NOTHING
Canadian Bridge Company of Walkerville also supplied the steel for the Border Cities Arena in Windsor, Ontario 1924. Anyone know where I could get blueprints?
I work for valco mfg. I have 3 photos of this buiding from 1918 “the bomb shop” pdf file pics. I love old pics of windsor!!!
my dad worked in The Dominion Bridge Company in Toronto….for 12 years till 1977….great memories of that period…lot’s of Italian worked there….please get in touch with me on my email address I know live in Italy…..R.B.
rb themapleleaf@libero.it
Hi Andrew
Fantastic site. I worked at the bridge in the 70’s,both plants . I had just come out of Mike Haruks welding school & every project I worked on was massive.Those towers for Ont. Hydro were at least 6″ across the base. We also prefabed a fishing tug that went to Peru, a smelter building for INCO in Sudbury. a 100 ton gantry crane for Hawkers iron foundry in Quebec,huge railway towers for C.N. but the most impressive were 2 I-beams for the Newfoundland railway ferry approach for C.N. They were 120’long, weighed 120 tons & floated in the ocean. They were loaded on special rail cars with extra flatbeds on either end & took 3 mo’s to get to Nova Scotia.I was told that the load was too long to fit through some of the curves in Canada so the load went via the U.S. & utilized the Erie canal for part of the trip.I’ve been trying to track those beams down for yr’s but no luck yet.
The cranes that ran on the rails outside plant 1 also ran inside the plant. As I recall there were also yard cranes that ran on tracks throughout the property. The Steel Workers Union went on strike in/70 & the company moved the machining division out of plant 1 by rail while they were walking in front of the building. The strikers couldn’t do anything because the rails inside the plant were owned by the railroad.If any of your readers know where those BIG beams are call me at 780 642 8929 Thanks ED
My father’s eldest brother installed some of the red hot rivets that went into the
Ambassador Bridge Structure ( now deceased Mr. Leo Filiault )
My first cousin’s husband ( also deceased, worked at the Walkerville Plant, Mr. Joe Bellemore )
My father, John R. Stratford was with the Canadian Bridge Co, for many years. He was the foreman for the steel erection on many
jobs–the Thousand Island Intenational Bridge at Lansdowne, Ontario., which opened in 1938, the DEW Line (Early Warning Towers) Goose Bay Labrador, the North West Territories, the Supreme Court Building, Ottawa, Ontario. Ernie Pretty was the Superintendent then and one of the workers was Eddie Norris. My father built towers and bridges in many provinces.
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.
My father worked at Dominion Bridge in Toronto in the 1970’s/80’s. It’s sad to see that the Canadian company no longer exists. I wish I could have preserved more of my father’s past.
Re Mark’s comment on CBC making ammo boxes during the War, my aunt was a secretary at CBC for many years and I have (somewhere) an old company magazine in which a special section was devoted to letters received from former employees fighting overseas. One soldier mentioned the warm feeling he got whenever he happened upon an ammo box built by CBC in Walkerville—made him think of the friends he’d left behind. I’ll see if I can find that and reply with the whole letter in future.
Ken Smith, I worked ate Hawker siddeley Canada at the time you worked there and im trying to remember you.
Ken Smith, are you still in contact with the guys who worked at Hawker Siddeley?
I would like to contact Ken Smith in regards to seeking information about the Canadian Bridge Company.
Please share his contact info and pass-on mines.
Thank you
I would like to contact Ken Smith in regards to seeking information about the Canadian Bridge Company.
Please share my contact info.
Thank you
David, I have been waiting for Ken to respond. I’m sorry I don’t have his contact info.
My great-uncle William David Hammond worked there during the second world war as Assistant to the Chief Inspector. That’s all I know and if anyone has more details, please reply.
Thanks
Stephen, did your uncle work there when it was Canadian Bridge?
Mike. I believe so. I got the information from his obit. I don’t know what year(s) he would have been there, except that it was during the war. The exact quote is ” During the Second World War has was assistant to the Chief Inspector at the Canadian Bridge Co. at Windsor.”