Famous bridge evolved from aerial ferry

By Peter Passi ppassi@duluthnews.com

Duluth’s Aerial Lift Bridge traces its history back to 1905, when the city opened a structure equipped with a gondola to ferry people and vehicles across the canal that separates Park Point from the rest of the city. The 186-foot-tall bridge was one of just five such structures in the world and the first of its kind in the United States. It was built at a cost of about $111,700 — the equivalent of more than $3.2 million today, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The gondola took about 70 seconds to traverse the canal, and it cost a nickel per trip.

The aerial ferry bridge was converted into the Aerial Lift Bridge, and on Oct. 29, 1929, about 5,000 people came out to see its first lift. The structure was equipped with two 450-ton counterweights and four 95-horsepower electric motors that were used to lift the concrete roadway 42 feet in the air, providing marine traffic with free passage through the shipping canal.

Work on the conversion stretched into the winter of 1930 and cost about $400,000 — the equivalent of about $6 million today.

In the 1950s, as Duluth moved away from streetcars, tracks were removed from the bridge and its deck was replaced with steel grating.

After the St. Lawrence Seaway opened, throngs of people gathered at the Lift Bridge on May 3, 1959, to welcome the first saltwater ship ever to call on the Twin Ports: the Ramon de Larrinaga.

Residents raised about $21,000 to install lighting on the bridge in 1966, and in 1970 the bridge’s original Essex Green paint job was replaced with silver.

The bridge received upgrades in 1985 and 2000, when more than $5 million was invested to repair and renovate the structure. u

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Enger Tower

Rick Lubbers

We pass them every day in our cars or on foot. Some of us work in them. We tour them and snap selfies in front of them, show them off to relatives or friends visiting from out of town. Unfortunately, we are often oblivious after seeing them so much and can tend to take them for granted.

But they are invaluable landmarks of the region, totems of the past that remind us where we’ve been, where we are now and even cast light on or foreshadow our future.

They are the historic buildings of the Northland.

Whether it’s sparkling Glensheen Mansion in Duluth, the splendid Hibbing High School and its auditorium, the history-filled Duluth Armory, or the unique structures of the Davidson Windmill in rural Douglas County and the Frank Lloyd Wright gas station in downtown Cloquet, these buildings all have played a vital role in our history and remind us how important it is to take care of these invaluable structures for posterity. This is not meant to be a comprehensive list. We don’t have nearly enough room in this magazine to get them all in — maybe we’ll create a sequel in a future DNT Extra? — but we hope you’ll enjoy this special look at many of the buildings that have helped Duluth and the Northland carve a unique identity. Thanks for being a loyal reader of the Duluth News Tribune.

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Denfeld High School

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Davidson Windmill

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Historic Old Central High School

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Frank Lloyd Wright gas station

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Duluth Armory