Aerial Lift Bridge

The Aerial Lift Bridge is Duluth's most iconic structure, a working vertical-lift bridge that spans the Duluth Ship Canal at Canal Park. When an ore carrier or bulk freighter is scheduled to pass through, sirens sound, the road gates drop, and the road deck rises — slowly and with great mechanical dignity — to allow vessels sometimes 300 metres long to pass beneath. It is genuinely impressive, and the timing (posted on the DuluthShipping.com website) allows you to plan your visit around a ship transit.

Canal Park, around the base of the bridge, is the tourist hub of Duluth: a mix of restaurants, the Lake Superior Maritime Visitor Center, the SS William A. Irvin museum ship, and the Great Lakes Aquarium. The Lakewalk, a paved promenade, extends from here along the waterfront. Standing at the end of the breakwater pier on a windy day gives a vivid sense of Lake Superior's scale and temper.

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The Aerial Lift Bridge has an unusual history: it was originally an aerial transfer bridge built in 1905, where a gondola suspended from the bridge moved pedestrians and vehicles across the canal. In 1929 it was converted to its current vertical-lift design. The original gondola mechanism, one of only a few ever built in the world, was scrapped during the conversion — today only photographs record what it looked like in motion.

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