Winnipeg made #Skyscraper history 120 years ago with tower once tallest in Canada

Winnipeg's Main Street in the early #1900s was still mostly mud and #prairie gumbo, crosshatched by narrow wagon wheel tracks — vestiges of a frontier past as it teetered on the cusp of becoming one of #NorthAmerica's most robust cities.

In spring #1903 it crossed that threshold. That's when the corner of Main and William Avenue, the edge of a former creek bed, was chosen as the site for what would become western Canada's first skyscraper.

Construction of the Union Bank building marked a leap forward for the young city. Though it stood just 11 storeys tall, it towered over the two-and-three-storey buildings fronting Main.

When completed in November #1904, it was the second-tallest building in the #BritishEmpire. And for the next two years it was the tallest building in Canada.

"It is odd to reflect that the site which will be covered by this big modern block was, not long ago, the bank of a #Coulee or gully. The whole site of the city was either coulee or swamp," stated an article on May 23, 1903.

#UrbanLandscape #Manitoba #Canada #CanadianHistory #UrbanHistory #History #CanadianGeography #Geography #Environment #UrbanPlanning #Winnipeg #HistoricalPhotographs #Photography #HeritagePhotographs

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/union-bank-building-history-skyscraper-winnipeg-1.6838581

#Coulee, or coulée (/ˈkuːleɪ/ or /ˈkuːliː/ is a term applied rather loosely to different landforms, all of which refer to a kind of #valley or #DrainageZone. The word coulee comes from the #CanadianFrench #Coulee, from French couler 'to flow'.

In a parallel universe, #Winnipeg is styled around a network of #rivers, #creeks and #treams, where paddlers drift past stone mills churning grain into flour.

Within the area now bounded by the Perimeter Highway, there were once 16 major streams and 20 small creeks or coulees that carried water when fed by heavy rains or spring melt.

— much of the landscape now occupied by Winnipeg was #marshland or periodic #WetMeadow.

The streams and creeks carved that land, and bowed and twisted as they meandered through farms and fields that are now private yards, city streets, golf courses, and the heart of #WinnipegExchangeDistrict.

#WetLands #Landscape #Manitoba #Canada #CanadianHistory #UrbanHistory #History #Canadiangeography #Geography #Environment #UrbanPlanning

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/creeks-streams-winnipeg-history-1.4641823