Aerial Lift Bridge
Postcard from the Aerial Bridge Over Ship Canal in Duluth
Duluth’s Aerial Bridge was but a year old when this postcard was mailed on July 12, 1906 — 120 years ago today. (more…)
The water is 32 degrees
Two canoeists paddled into the Duluth Ship Canal Thursday morning. They took turns standing up in the canoe, getting out and standing on a chunk of ice. They took photos of each other. (more…)
Duluth Deep Dive #14: The Last of the Transporter Bridges
Germany’s Osten-Hemmoor Bridge with a postcard of Duluth’s transporter bridge in the foreground. (Photo by Matthew James; postcard from the University of Minnesota Duluth, Kathryn A. Martin Library, University Archives)
Growing up in Duluth, I often heard that the lift bridge was the only bridge of its type in the world. I later learned that the world is full of lift bridges. Wikipedia lists 137 of them. But that doesn’t mean the claim isn’t true. The lift bridge was once a transporter bridge, a far more rare type of bridge. Aside from various hand-cranked bridges that basically amount to art projects, fewer than two dozen transporter bridges have ever been built anywhere in the world. Only eight of those are still in use. And the world only has one converted transporter bridge in operation: Duluth’s Aerial Lift Bridge. This Duluth Deep Dive takes a closer look at what Duluth’s bridge was like before its conversion by recounting my visit to two of the world’s remaining transporter bridges. One is the closest surviving counterpart to Duluth’s original canal bridge. The other gives a sense what the Duluth bridge might have looked like if the city had modernized the gondola instead of making the conversion to a lift bridge. (more…)
Ektachrome Postcard from the Aerial Lift Bridge
This undated postcard, perhaps circa the 1960s, offers a view of the Aerial Lift Bridge from across the Duluth Harbor. The card was published by the H.C. Wick Company and features an Ektachrome photo by Rod Peterson. (more…)
The Aerial Lift Bridge as impossible cube
Not too long ago I looked at the Aerial Lift Bridge, and for a moment my mind mis-read it as having the wrong angles of an Escher-like “impossible cube,” pictured here. The optical illusion has stuck with me and now I have to force myself not to see it. It is beyond me at the moment to produce my mental image as a drawing or doctored photo, but I wanted to get the idea out there in case the vision inspires anybody. Post images as comments if you’re feeling it, otherwise I am content to just keep privately seeing an impossible lift bridge.
Video Archive: Bridge Dancing in 1994
Before the Doris Ressl Dance Ensemble launched the annual Dances on the Lakewalk series, its original site-specific event was set at the Aerial Lift Bridge. About 1,000 people gathered on Aug. 19 and 20, 1994, to view “Bridge Dancing,” a 23-minute piece created by Twin Cities choreographer Marylee Hardenbergh. The music was simulcast by KUMD-FM 103.3, now known as WDSE-FM “The North.” (more…)
Dollhouse City Lift Bridge
Photos of the Richardson brothers Dollhouse City taken by their mommy Nell Richardson, except the last image by the Richardson brothers. Dollhouse City is a Duluth-based psychogeographical freakout representing the city and oh yeah the universe in fractal miniature. It is our joint toy collection plus the toys of my adult daughter which I never discarded, including most of the dollhouses. This three-sided collection was displayed locally at many of Sarah Heimer’s Dioramarama shows. (more…)
Jessie’s Duluth Drone Adventure
In this recent installment of “Jessie’s Drone Adventures,” Arizona-based video storyteller Jessie Nino dips into a little Duluth harbor history before heading up the shore to Palisade Head.
Postcard from the Aerial Lift Bridge Circa the 1960s
This undated postcard, published by the W. A. Fisher Company, features a Kodachrome photo of the Aerial Lift Bridge circa maybe the early 1960s. (more…)
Postcard from the Car of the Aerial Bridge
This undated postcard from the V. O. Hammon Publishing Company shows Duluth’s Aerial Bridge circa 1905 to 1929, when a ferry car transferred people across the shipping canal.
Postcard from the Aerial Life Bridge (Basgen Photography)
This undated postcard, published by Northern Minnesota Novelties, shows the Aerial Lift Bridge and parts of Canal Park and Park Point circa maybe 1960. The back of the card credits the aerial photo to maritime photographer Jean Basgen. (more…)
Postcard from a Great Lakes Packet Freighter
This undated postcard, published by Zenith Interstate News Company, shows a Great Lakes packet freighter passing through the Duluth Shipping Canal under the Aerial Lift Bridge. (more…)
Riding High on the Aerial Lift Bridge
This wacky postcard was mailed 55 years ago today — Aug. 8, 1968. The caption on the back reads: “Riding High on the Famous Aerial Lift Bridge, Duluth, Minnesota.” (more…)
Watson Silver and Lift Bridge Spoons
Ad for Watson Silver
As I read some of the magazines I purchased from the Duluth Public Library, I am impressed by a sense that the library bought magazines to suit the aspirations of the Zenith city. Magazines celebrating the fancy life might feel a little out of place in a public library today, but Duluth in the 1920s was a city that had some millionaires and wanted the world to think it had more.
We can see that in the ad above, taken from an interior design magazine, for Watson Silverware. (more…)
Corner of the Lake, 1963
This photo by Lyman E. Nylander is dated April 28, 1963 — 60 years ago today. It shows several Canal Park icons — the Aerial Lift Bridge, Duluth Harbor North Breakwater Lighthouse, Uncle Harvey’s Mausoleum — but the Duluth Lakewalk is still decades away from being built.
Because of the I-35 tunnel, with Gichi-ode’ Akiing / Lake Place Park built on top of it, shooting a modern photo from this perspective would be either challenging or impossible.
Postcard from a Section of the Duluth Harbor and Railroad Yards
This postcard, published by the Henricksen Agency of Duluth circa 1930, shows the Duluth waterfront, railroad yards and Aerial Lift Bridge.
Highlights from “The Guys Who Never Stop Fighting”
My comic strip “The Guys Who Never Stop Fighting” originally appeared a few times in the Ripsaw News in my “Crackbrained Comix” series. I revived the GWNSF for the Transistor where it ran for several years. Both publications are now defunct. Here is a gallery of ten highlights.
Aerial Lift Bridge, Duluth MN
AI illustrator Stable Diffusion from the prompt “Aerial Lift Bridge in Duluth, MN”
Postcard from the Entrance to the Duluth-Superior Harbor
This postcard of the Aerial Bridge, circa 1915-1925, notes its span is “393 feet 9 inches, 135 feet high from water line” and its construction cost was $100,000. The image shows a ferry car being transferred across the canal. The bridge’s era as a transfer bridge ran from March 27, 1905 to July 1, 1929. (more…)
Canal Park souvenir invites tourists to envision a lift bridge over the Mississippi
Some years ago, I had a Duluth nameplate hanging from the back of my bicycle, which I suppose is why I impulsively bought another when I saw it recently in a Canal Park souvenir shop. I vaguely remember the one I had purchased in my younger years having a generic cityscape and not actually showing Duluth.
This one seemed no different, and might even be the same design, but this time I noticed that the building on the far left had a rather specific architecture. Checking with a group of skyscraper-obsessed friends led me to a conclusion that I should have reached myself: this Duluth souvenir depicts the skyline of St. Paul. (more…)
Flame Excursion Boat during Portorama 1962
This photograph by Lyman E. Nylander was shot 60 years ago during the Duluth Seaway Portorama of 1962. The 108-passenger Flame served as a tourist excursion boat in Duluth from 1961 to 1973. It was replaced by the 256-passenger Vista Queen.
The Flame is now operating in Buffalo, N.Y.
PDD Video Lab: Duluth Aerial Lift Bridge, July 2022
In this edition of the PDD Video Lab we’ve taken a recently shot silent drone video by YouTube user IndyDroner and added music from Robert Plant’s 2017 album Carry Fire. The track is titled “Heaven Sent.” (more…)