Innovation

The remarkable octagonal tower at Pointe-au-Père was part of a series of reinforced concrete lighthouses constructed between 1906 and 1914. These lighthouses took varied forms, including round and square towers and hexagonal or octagonal towers with buttresses, some with flying buttresses. At a time when reinforced concrete had only just begun to be used in structural engineering and there were very few examples of it in Canada, the ministry's engineers chose it for new lighthouse construction. The Pointe-au-Père structure is one of six flying buttress lighthouses still standing in Canada. In 1975, the elegant white tower and its light were replaced by a fourth lighthouse, a galvanized steel tower, as automation introduced by the Department of Transport at the start of the 1960s took hold. This last lighthouse went dark in 1997, ending Pointe-au-Père's active role as a navigational aid.

Quebec · Canada