Spanning a century

The modern history of Duluth all started when Daniel Greysolon Sieur duLhut and his band of explorers, on their way from Montreal, Canada,
beached their canoe on the sand at "Little Portage," Minnesota Point, on June 27, 1669. Sieur duLuht was sent by King Louis XIV of France to establish fur trading with the Indians. For the next 200 years, only missionaries and fur traders crossed the point. In 1852 George Stuntz, a deputy U.S. surveyor, came across from Superior and built a dock and trading post on the end of Minnesota Point.

The main structure of Duluth's famed bridge nears completion in this 1904 photo. Construction was completed in 1905.

It was after the treaty of 1854, when it was no longer necessary to get a government license to trade with the Indians, that the people started migrating across the point to the Minnesota side.

These settlers decided that if they were going to have a city they must have a railroad and a harbor. They arranged to have the Lake Superior and Mississippi Railroad terminate in Duluth instead of Superior and built a railroad terminus and harbor facilities. To protect the lakeshore harbor activities, they added a breakwater, extending into the lake from the mainland at Duluth's Fifth Avenue East.

When severe storms during the winter of 1869 damaged the breakwater and harbor facilities, the city's early developers concluded that a canal through the point was imperative. Digging of the canal (a 30-foot-wide ditch) was started in the summer of 1870 and completed in the spring of 1871.

From this meager beginning the canal was soon widened to 250 feet, with sides protected by timber cribs. C.A.P. Turner, city engineer, was in charge of this work. Lake transportation could now proceed through the canal and serve the area with harbor facilities in the St. Louis Bay area.

The cutting through of the canal made the south portion of Minnesota Point an island, but the six miles of the point thus severed from the mainland continued to be a place of residence for a small population which traveled across the canal in the open season in rowboats and in winter on the ice, or, for a number of years, on an improvised suspension bridge, which required more than ordinary courage to cross.

The city of Duluth, ever since cutting the canal, had looked with regret at the large amount of dock frontage on the bay side of the point that could not be used because of poor access. For years efforts had been made to devise practical means of transportation across the canal to provide for business development of the property on the Point and for the convenience of its residents and the rapidly increasing number of Duluthians who were using its beautiful wooded grounds for camping and picnicking.

The problem of how to link Minnesota Point with the mainland without adversely affecting navigation nearly caused the governing heads of Duluth to become prematurely gray. Scheme after scheme was devised. Swing bridges, draw bridges and roller bridges were all proposed and thoroughly discussed, but always there was an insuperable objection — the possible interference with the harbor's growing shipping business. The government steadily refused to countenance any proposal that would interfere with navigation.

The first attempt to provide a permanent crossing was in 1890, when the services of A.P. Boller were secured to prepare plans for a bridge. His report recommended a draw bridge with a pivot pier on the south side of the canal and with a clear span of 200 feet between fenders, the clearance above water being 20 feet. The estimated cost was $400,000. These plans were approved by the city but were abandoned due to strenuous opposition by steamship companies.

The next scheme was for a tunnel, and plans were prepared for the city by William Sooy Smith, with different capacities and estimated costs from $880,000 to $1.3 million, figures so large that the city could not undertake the work. Meanwhile, agitation continued for some form of bridge.

In November 1891, a prize of $1,000 was offered for the best design of a draw bridge. Twenty plans were submitted, among others a lift bridge that was considered favorably the city, but on submitting the matter to the Board of U.S. Engineers, approval was refused for any type of bridge submitted in this competition.

In 1898 a free rowboat ferry service was replaced by a steam tug ferry costing the city $9,000 per year for operation. The cost of this service and its unsatisfactory nature kept alive the desire and agitation for something better.

In the meantime, difficulties were increased by the fact that the government condemned property on both sides of the canal and widened the canal at Lake Av
enue to 350 feet, with concrete walls on each side, making necessary a span of nearly 400 feet for any form of bridge erected at this location.

In 1889 Thomas F. McGilvray, the city engineer, suggested and prepared sketches of a structure resembling the Anodin Bridge at Rouen, France. The drawings aroused considerable interest. At the suggestion of C.A.P. Turner that a girder construction of span in place of a suspension bridge and a stiff traveler in place of cable suspenders for the car would be sturdier and cheaper, McGilvray drew up additional sketches.

The idea found ready acceptance. Special legislation was secured, and assurances to overcome other obstacles were obtained, so that in February 1901, only one bid — that of the American Bridge Co. — was received on the general plans, prepared under the direction of Turner, then engineer of American Bridge's Western Contracting Co.

Under this proposal, the city was to pay $7,000 per year for 20 years. The city immediately applied to the Secretary of War for a permit to erect the bridge, but it was not granted until Sept. 6, 1901. In the meantime the American Bridge Co. had withdrawn its proposal. A new proposal was then submitted by the Duluth Canal Bridge Co., and a contract was closed with the city.

The structural work was sublet to the American Bridge Co., and 500 tons of steel were delivered at the Minneapolis plant. But in June of 1902, the Duluth Canal Bridge Co. failed to make its first scheduled payment to the American Bridge Co. and the work stopped. The foundations had been put in, but not paid for.

In May of 1903, the city council passed a resolution canceling the contract with the Duluth Canal Bridge Co. and directing the city engineer to advertise for new proposals. Turner, meanwhile, had spent considerable time getting plans in shape to secure propositions on an improved design.

The time for receiving bids was getting short, and the chances of getting any responsible firm to submit a proposition appeared to be more and more remote, when the Modern Steel Structural Co. of Waukesha, Wis., after rejecting the proposition once, reconsidered and agreed to submit a somewhat different form than required by the advertisement. The total cost of the bridge was limited to $100,000. The proposal was the only one and was accepted by the city council, subject to the contract being upheld in court.

After considerable court proceedings and a test suit carried by the city all the way to the Supreme Court, there was evidence of Modern Steel and the city pre-arranging the terms. Accordingly, new bids were called for in January 1904, and only one bid, accompanied by the requisite check, was received from Modern Steel. This was accepted by the city, and work was promptly under way. Before the winter of 1905 the bridge was operating.

In the following few years, all of the mechanical difficulties were ironed out to Mr. Turner's satisfaction, and the expense of maintenance was materially reduced. The cost of the steam ferry boat service averaged $11,000 per year. The estimated cost of the ferry bridge was $8,000, including operation, maintenance and interest on the bonds. A sinking fund of $3,000 could thus be created which would in time pay for the bridge.

The bridge became the present "Aerial Lift Bridge" in 1929. Modifications included raising the two vertical steel towers and the horizontal truss to a height of 172 feet to allow better clearance for ships. The counterweighted elevating roadway replaced the traveling carriage, and the bridge has served virtually without design change to this day.

The bridge was painted silver in 1970 and floodlighted in 1987-88 by the Rotary Club of Duluth. During the winter of 2000-01 the City of Duluth gave the icon a $5.1 million overhaul, refurbishing all of the bridge's lifting apparatus.

The Duluth Aerial Lift Bridge is the landmark for the Head of the Lakes. It salutes every ship entering and leaving the harbor, and is, without a doubt, Duluth's best known and most popular tourist attraction.

Edited and reprinted from 1976 Duluth Seaway Port Authority publication Duluth's Ship Canal and Aerial Bridge, How They Came to Be, with information from History of Minnesota Point by Frank A. Young, St. Louis County Historical Society.