Postcards from Duluth’s Shipping Canal
There are a bazillion postcards of the Aerial Lift Bridge and various ships, but in this post the aim is to steer attention more to the shipping canal.
There are a bazillion postcards of the Aerial Lift Bridge and various ships, but in this post the aim is to steer attention more to the shipping canal.
Before the Silver Creek Cliff Tunnel was built in the early 1990s, Highway 61 wound around the edge of the cliff. Drivers relied on skill and luck to avoid tumbling boulders or anything that might send them plunging over the edge into Lake Superior. The Gitchi-Gami State Trail was later built following the old Highway 61 path.
This postcard image looking out from Skyline Drive at the city’s hillside, downtown, Aerial Lift Bridge, Minnesota Point, Lake Superior and so on has been used a few times as Perfect Duluth Day’s cover photo on Facebook, and more than once has been met with the question, “Who did this painting?” The answer is, we don’t know. Old postcards rarely credit the artist. But maybe someone out there knows.
