Hundreds of thousands of curious onlookers flocked to St. Hubert airport near Montreal in 1930 to see the R100 airship in its first transatlantic flight and Canadian visit. The 12 day stay included ship tours for three thousand lucky people and a passenger-carrying trip to Ottawa, Toronto and the Niagara area before the ship returned to England.
St Hubert had been picked as the Canadian terminus for airships in the Imperial Airship Scheme and an elaborate 200 foot tall mooring mast and terminal building had been constructed. The building contained the steam winches and other machinery required to service the ships. Passengers and crew were whisked by elevator up to the top where they made a half-meter step in open air into the craft and then walked down a long catwalk inside the craft to the passenger and crew quarters amidships.
Shortly after the R100 returned to England, another airship, the R101 crashed and burned while on a flight to India. As a result, the Imperial Airship Scheme fizzled out and the R100 was scrapped. The mast was no longer needed and was torn down in 1938.
http://www.aviation.technomuses.ca/assets/pdf/e_R100.pdf
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