PEV's Atlantic Canada Bulk Terminal is located on what used to be the Sydney Steel Plant wharf.

​

When the steel plant was first built in the opening years of the 1900s, a complex of three finger piers extended into the harbour near this site.  These three piers were located at the base of Dominion St. in the Whitney Pier district.  A coal loading pier was situated to the north, a steel shipping pier in the middle, and a materials unloading pier on the south side.

​

The coal pier was a double-deck structure. It was designed so that coal cars could roll up onto the upper level and then discharge their coal into ships docked by the lower level.

​

The middle steel-loading pier was a flat, one level structure with four cranes - the setup made it possible to work the ships four cargo holes simultaneously.

​

The material-unloading pier to the south was known as the high pier because of its two deck structure. The lower part of the pier was where the ships tied up. The upper deck was a trestle upon which railroad cars were shunted to be loaded.

​

Four cranes towered above the upper deck. Each crane had a clamshell bucket that could be lowered into the holds of ships, where they would grab loads of iron ore. The four cranes meant that four ship holds could be emptied at the same time. The ore would be lifted out of the ship and dropped into the rail cars.  When filled, those rail cars were hauled a short distance to the blast furnace stockpile.

​

Usually a ship carried about 10,000 tons of iron ore and would be about 6 feet above the water when it docked. When it was fully unloaded it would have been about 30 feet out of the water.