"Silo City" is a unique complex of industrial buildings preserving a rich part of Buffalo's heritage. Grain was shipped from the far west of the Great Lakes on large lake steamers to Buffalo at the eastern end of Lake Erie. At Buffalo grain was offloaded and stored in silos before being shipped on to the east coast ports via the Erie canal and the railroads. The American elevator and silo, built in 1906 and today part of Silo City, was the first of these cylindrical concrete elevators that came to characterize the Buffalo skyline.