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This massive grain elevator appears to shrink as you drive closer [1]

['Ellsworth Toohey']

Date: 2025-06-17

Near Buffalo, across Lake Erie in Port Colborne, Ontario, sits a mind-bending visual phenomenon known as the "Incredible Shrinking Mill." This Archer Daniels Midland grain elevator creates a illusion that defies our expectations of perspective.

When driving east on Lakeshore Road, the mill initially appears large and relatively close. But as you continue driving toward it, something unexpected happens — the building seems to shrink dramatically and recede further away, contradicting our everyday experience that objects grow larger as we approach them.

Atlas Obscura explains: "As you drive along the lakeshore heading east towards the town of Port Colborne, there's a federal grain elevator mill in the distance, which appears quite large, framed by a group of trees and the road ahead. However, as the trees become closer, the mill recedes rapidly into the distance."

The illusion works because of how our brains process visual information. Initially, your view of the mill is tightly framed by trees and houses with no clear horizon line. As you drive closer, more of the surrounding landscape becomes visible, forcing your brain to constantly readjust its perception of the mill's size relative to its environment.

To experience this optical oddity yourself, take Cement Plant Road south to Lakeshore Road, turn east, and look straight ahead. As Atlas Obscura notes, it's "a good reminder that seeing isn't always believing."

[Via Futility Closet]

Previously:

• I couldn't figure out this optical illusion painting until the very end

• Check out this stunningly strange double optical illusion

• Does your perception of this optical illusion tell you something about your personality?

• Mr Angry and Mrs Calm optical illusion

• Watch and rewatch this optical illusion to figure out how it's done

• A driver experienced this astonishingly weird and scary optical illusion in a tunnel

• Watch this fantastic 'Circle in Circle' optical illusion machine in action

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[1] Url: https://boingboing.net/2025/06/17/this-massive-grain-elevator-appears-to-shrink-as-you-drive-closer.html

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