and the City of Brussels as the location for a new commercial station along the Brussels Canal. Construction of the Tour & Taxis industrial complex, spread over of land, officially began on 22 July 1900, with King Leopold II present for the inaugural festivities. Tour & Taxis was one of the first multi-modal freight transport platforms in the world. Frédéric Bruneel served as the main engineer for the project, while , Constant Bosmans and Henri Vandeveld worked as architects. Central to the site's functionality was the Maritime Station (, ), a freight station constructed by Bruneel beginning in 1902 and open from 1907. The expansive steel and glass structure was designed to efficiently receive goods by land, water and rail. Major sources of cargo included sugar, coffee, alcohol, tobacco, and chocolate. Customs and excise duties were then collected on-site via the Customs House (, ), and goods were stored in bonded warehouses—the Public Depot (, ) and the Royal Depot (, )—before their redistribution. The Maritime Station was controlled by the Belgian State Railways (and, from 1926, the National Railway Company of Belgium), while the bonded warehouses were managed by the (and later, the Port of Brussels). The buildings have been recognised for the quality of their construction. According to La Fonderie, Brussels Museum of Industry and Labour, the Tour & Taxis site is a "catalogue of architecture and civil engineering", as well as "a testament to the skills of Belgian engineers and workers, and their mastery of steel, iron, stone, glass and concrete." Their appearance was influenced by both the Flemish Renaissance and the Art Nouveau style characteristic of early 20th-century Brussels. Growth and decline During the first half of the 20th century, the busy Tour & Taxis site furthered industrial and economic development in Brussels. According to La Fonderie, "construction of the complex and the port resulted in the development of the surrounding area, where life soon revolved around the packaging, storage, sale and transportation of different cargoes... Outstanding industrial buildings sprang up, followed by residential buildings and workers' housing estates. The Tour & Taxis complex was a hive of social and economic activity. In its heyday at the end of the 1960s, it employed a workforce of almost 3,000." As Europe's economic landscape shifted over the latter half of the 20th century, so did Tour & Taxis' importance as a centre of commerce and industry. The Treaty