Pictures taken from the publication,"Early Days in Duluth"
Pictured above is the canal in 1872 just after completion.
The canal was made of wooden piers. Channels were deepened from 20 feet to 24 feet in the 1930s. With the development of the St. Lawrence Seaway system during the 1950s, the waterways throughout the lakes, were made 27 feet deep to accommodate the largest lake ships, as well as the ocean-going foreign vessels.
The "Twin Ports" - are the leading bulk cargo ports on the Great Lakes as well as among the busiest in the nation. Each season, around 30 to 40 million tons of cargo pass through the port. In some years, the total tonnage has reached 75 million tons.
Located at the westernmost end of the Great Lakes- St. Lawrence Seaway System, it is the farthest inland seaport in the world. It is at 2,342 miles from the Atlantic Ocean, yet set in the country's heartland, close to the essential resources- grain, iron ore, stone, and coal.
Duluth-Superior Harbor has 17 miles of channels, 45 miles of frontage, and dozens of commercial docks, including some of the largest and most modern in the world. The ports serve nearly 200 foreign-flag vessels each year, along with an average of a thousand Great Lakes freighters - "lakers" that include 1,000-foot super freighters carrying over 60,000 tons per trip.
© 2005 Sissy