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Such a day in the sun we have had in Duluth and Superior. It started with a quick tour of downtown Duluth in the “Port Town Trolley”, followed by a guided tour of a Great Lakes cargo ship and then a long cruise on Duluth harbor, all capped off with a bike ride along the Superior, WI, waterfront. Phew! With a week’s supply of Vitamin D safely stored up, tomorrow will be quite different.
Here’s a wide angle shot of downtown Duluth with its signature Aerial Bridge at the far right, marking the harbor entrance:
In this closer view you can make out I-35 (the low-profile freeway between downtown and the waterfront), the skywalk over the freeway and the restored Railway Depot with its steep-pitched roof on the left:
Since riding the Transporter Bridge in Newport, Wales, early last year, we have wanted to see what became of Duluth’s version. Both bridges were built around 1905 and both originally carried a few vehicles and passengers across on a gondola suspended from cables. While the bridge in Wales still carries only 6 cars at a time, the bridge in Duluth was modified about 1930 into an “aerial bridge”. Now, the center section, which is normally down for vehicular traffic to cross, can be lifted when needed to allow large ships to pass.
There are only 13 cargo carriers on the Great Lakes having lengths over 1000 feet. The two largest of these “super carriers” happened to be in Duluth harbor today and we saw both at close range. Here’s the largest vessel on the Great Lakes passing under the Aerial Bridge --- or, at least its stern. No way could I get all 1013 feet of this ship in the photo:
Some of the other photos shot today will have to wait for tomorrow. Good thing --- we plan to sleep in.