Aerial bridge from bay; boats entering; canal; piers; Minnesota Point buildings on both sides; houses; light house on south pier; Corps of Engineers building.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Duluth, Kathryn A. Martin Library, Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections
Aerial bridge under construction; Wenisch and Bourgeault cut stone contractors sign; steamer exiting harbor through canal; light house on south pier near bridge
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Duluth, Kathryn A. Martin Library, Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections
View of the collapsed bridge after the well-drillling rig broke through while crossing on April 18, 1914. Notice the horse and wagon in the river. A few days before this, Marie Binger Bailey's uncle, Bernard Binger, had crossed the bridge with two loads of lumber. His daughter wrote: "The Angels are here."
First bridge over the Mississippi River that connected Anoka and Champlin, MN. The original bridge was constructed in 1884 and stood until 1929 when the current Anoka-Champlin bridge was completed.
Looking northwest at the two Anoka-Champlin bridges that span the Mississippi River. The new bridge was completed in 1929 and is located in front of the older bridge. The bridge connects Anoka to Champlin.
When it gets very cold and the water of Lake Superior is warmer than the air, the lake "smokes" as seen here. The smokestack at the left is the Duluth Steam Plant that provides heat to hundreds of downtown businesses. The Duluth business district's tallest building is the Alworth shown here just in front of the Aerial Lift Bridge. The 16 story Daniel Burnham designed Alworth was built in 1909 in nine months opening August 30, 1910. Pioneer Hall is behind the Alworth. Ground was broken on April 7, 1975 for the Pioneer Hall and Duluth Curling Club. The Silver Broom World Curling Tournament in March 1976, drew 41,000 fans from ten countries to the new ice sheets in Pioneer Hall.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Duluth, Kathryn A. Martin Library, Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections
A night view shows the Duluth Arena Auditorium and parking facilities. The Minnesota Power and Light substation is in the foreground. There is a lighted Christmas tree surrounded by a car display at the joint entrance to the complex. The Arena Auditorium opened to great fanfare in August 1966. The arena was home to UMD hockey and seats for 8,000, and the Duluth Symphony finally had a grand hall for its performances and sat 2,400. It was renamed the DECC or Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center on August 31, 1987. It was expanded and re-opened June 18, 1990. The Harbor Side Convention Center and Parking Ramp additions were opened January 31, 2001.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Duluth, Kathryn A. Martin Library, Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections
A night view shows the lights of Duluth's central business district and lights along the piers of the canal. The two central buildings are the tall Alworth building and the wide Medical Arts building both on the lower side of Superior Street. Fourth Avenue West is bright and visible and runs next to the darker Providence building. All three buildings still stand.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Duluth, Kathryn A. Martin Library, Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections
This view shows light the industrial Canal Park area at the left as you approach the Aerial Bridge and the 1966 completed Duluth Arena Auditorium at the center with its expansive parking lot. Sailboats and small pleasure craft are in the harbor. Fifth Avenue West overpass is at the far right. Note that Canal Park was not a tourist destination until the 1980s. It was zoned as a light industrial site for decades.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Duluth, Kathryn A. Martin Library, Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections
This view from Skyline Drive over the central business district of Duluth showing the curve of Minnesota Point is what this woman and two children see. People tend to get out of their cars to enjoy the wide view from Skyline. The Aerial Bridge has already lowered as the ore boat that passed under it now glides into the harbor. Northern Drug Company, or L. W. Leithhead Drug in earlier years, is the multistory building next to the new Fifth Avenue West curving road. The Flame Restaurant and sign are visible on the harbor shore at the tip of the ore boat between the Duluth Arena Auditorium (now called the DECC - Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center) and the circular Radisson Hotel.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Duluth, Kathryn A. Martin Library, Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections
This view is from just below First Street looking down Second Avenue West. Glass Block department store and the Sellwood building are on the corners of Superior Street and Second Avenue West. Railroad Street and ice filled slips are between downtown and the bridge. Minnesota Point extends beyond the bridge at the top of the image. Glass Block was built in 1893 and three floors added in 1902. It closed in 1981. The Sellwood was built in 1908 and still stands.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Duluth, Kathryn A. Martin Library, Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections
View of the harbor from above, possibly from Skyline Drive. The long, low Northern Pacific Railroad freight sheds are between Minnesota and Industrial slips. A laker is in Minnesota Slip. The coal dock area will be the construction site for the Duluth Arena Auditorium in 1963. Hearding Island is off Minnesota Point in the harbor. The island is the uninhabited site that has been called Bird Island by Park Point residents and Harbor Island by Duluth Bird Club members. The name Hearding Island is for William Hellins Hearding (England, 1826-1893, Milwaukee) who surveyed the Duluth-Superior harbor in 1861 as assigned by Captain (later a general in the Civil War) George C. Meade. The survey, completed in a little over two months, included the St. Louis River up to Fond du Lac, and the bay including Minnesota Point and the mouth of the Nemadji River. Rice's Point is at the middle left of the image showing a number of grain elevators.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Duluth, Kathryn A. Martin Library, Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections
A view to the canal with the Duluth business district in the foreground. The 1896 Sacred Heart Cathedral steeple is in the right corner in front of the building that is now the Damiano Center (clothes distribution and soup kitchen). The cathedral, now a music center, and the Damiano are at 211 and 206 West Fourth Street. At the left is the smokestack of the Duluth Steam Plant built in 1932 that continues to provide heat to downtown businesses. To the left of the smokestack is the five-story Freimuth's Department store which opened in 1900 on the corner of Lake Avenue and Superior Street. It was Duluth's oldest family owned firm when it closed in 1961 with 60 employees. The Freimuth's building was razed in May 1968. On the far right on Superior Street are the tall, slim Alworth building (16 stories) dating from 1909, and the light colored Medical Arts building on the site of the St. Louis Hotel. The hotel was razed beginning May 19, 1932. September 1, 1932 contractors broke ground for the Medical Arts building. Signs in Canal Park include Marshall-Wells Hardware Company and Griggs, Cooper and Company. Griggs Cooper was a wholesale grocer and liquor business at 217-219 Lake Avenue South featuring Home brand food.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Duluth, Kathryn A. Martin Library, Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections
Duluth harbor looking at the waterfront, the hillside beyond and the Canal Park area abutting the bridge. At the left on the waterfront are warehouse district buildings and remaining North Western Fuel Company coal docks before you reach slips and Canal Park businesses. At the center of the image is a light building, Hotel Duluth, at Superior Street and Third Avenue East that opened in May 1925. The bay side view of Minnesota Point is at the right with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers vessel yard facility.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Duluth, Kathryn A. Martin Library, Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections
Minnesota Slip (water), on some 1920s maps called Lake Avenue Slip, is bounded by the Northern Pacific Railway Dock No. 6, and the businesses and warehouses on the harbor edge of Canal Park. The Marshall-Wells water towers are a feature standing tall next to the DeWitt Seitz Company building that stands today. The DeWitt-Seitz Co., whose plant, factory, warehouse and offices were at 390 S. Lake Avenue, was one of Duluth's prosperous businesses. The company, organized in 1905 by Henry F. Seitz and C E. DeWitt, manufactured all grades of mattresses and box springs, and included wholesale and jobbing of furniture and floor coverings. The DeWitt-Seitz best grade mattress and box spring, known as the Sanomade, carried the slogan "Remember the Name, the Rest is Easy." It was used and advertised all over the country. Its wholesale furniture and jobbing business covered Minnesota, northern Wisconsin and Michigan, North Dakota and parts of South Dakota and Montana. Including salesmen, the company employed a total of 60 persons in its nine story building that still stands as the DeWitt-Seitz Market Place in Canal Park. F. S. Kelly Furniture Co. bought the furniture stock of the DeWitt-Seitz Co in June of 1961. DeWitt-Seitz continued manufacturing mattresses and reorganized the firm, but the mattress company was sold in 1962.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Duluth, Kathryn A. Martin Library, Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections
A Pittsburgh Steamship Division vessel is just about to move under the lift span of the bridge. If the crew looks toward the hillside it will see Minnesota Slip, Industrial Slip, remnants of the North Western Fuel Company coal dock, Northern Pacific Railroad docks 5 and 6, the site of Fifth Avenue West and Commerce Street that once was the bustling warehouse district and includes the Lakes Transit Company, F.A. Patrick building, Northern Drug wholesale building, and the electric company power station. The Flame Restaurant is the light rectangular building near the water's edge. Remnants of the Whitney Brothers rock crushing business are at the far right in the lake.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Duluth, Kathryn A. Martin Library, Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections
View from the harbor looking toward the Duluth downtown business district and the hillside. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers vessel yard is at the right. The U.S. Amry Corps of Engineers Building is framed by the Aerial Lift Bridge whose span is raised for the exit of an approaching ore boat. The ore boat is parallel to the new Arena Auditorium, just opened August 1966. The excursion boat business is at the corner of the Arena and Minnesota Slip. The pyramid shaped roof ofthe Pietro Belluschi designed copper top church, First Methodist, at Central Entrance and Skyline Drive is visible. It was completed in 1966. Canal Park is still industrial but will become a tourist destination following redevelopment in the 1980s. The South Breakwater Inner Light Tower or the Canal Park lighthouse is at the far right.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Duluth, Kathryn A. Martin Library, Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections
View shows Commerce Street in the foreground and Minnesota Point and its sandy beach to the right of the bridge. At the top left, Canal Park businesses and industries fit between Minnesota Slip and Lake Superior. Two cars are crossing the bridge. Ground was broken December 19, 1963 for the Duluth Arena Auditorium. The Arena Auditorium complex opened to great fanfare in August 1966. UMD hockey was played at the arena which, seating 8,000, was also the site of performances of entertainers and rock concerts. The Auditorium was home to the symphony, opera, ballet, and artists like Marcel Marceau. It was renamed the DECC or Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center on August 31, 1987. It was expanded and re-opened June 18, 1990. The Harbor Side Convention Center and Parking Ramp additions were opened January 31, 2001. At the far right are businesses removed for the Fifth Avenue West Overpass, and later, the Great Lakes Aquarium and Bayfront Festival Park.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Duluth, Kathryn A. Martin Library, Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections
This image stretches from the ore docks at 33rd Avenue West to about Eighth Avenue East, incorporating downtown Duluth and portions of the East Hillside, Minnesota Point, Superior, and the Superior harbor. A laker has just passed under the Aerial Lift Bridge and is heading in to the Duluth harbor. Grain elevators on Rice's Point are above the vessel. In the center of the photo is Hotel Duluth, just below what is now called the corner of the lake, with Fitger's Brewery to the left.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Duluth, Kathryn A. Martin Library, Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections
View of Downtown Duluth from Fourth Avenue West including the Duluth Harbor, Aerial Lift Bridge, Minnesota Point, and Lake Superior. Duluth City Hall and the St. Louis County Courthouse and jail are visible in the center right. Just below the Lift Bridge are the tall Alworth building and the wider Medical Arts building, both on the lower side of Superior Street. Along the waterfront are Minnesota Slip, Industrial Slip, the North Western Fuel Company coal dock, to the right is the Northern Cold Storage Building, 702 West Railroad Street. A number of lake vessels are grouped together in the center of the harbor.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Duluth, Kathryn A. Martin Library, Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections
View of West Duluth facing downtown Duluth and Lake Superior. The image includes the Duluth Missabe and Iron Range railroad ore docks, grain elevators on Rice's Point, the Aerial Lift Bridge, Minnesota Point, and Lake Superior. Wade Stadium is visible in the center of the picture to the left of the ore docks, with Wheeler Field, 3501 Grand Avenue, to the left of the stadium. Denfeld High School, 4405 West Fourth Street, is in the center of the bottom portion of the image with the West Junior High below it at the southwest corner of North Central Avenue and West Sixth Street. The Interstate Bridge connects Duluth and Superior, Wisconsin at Rice's Point. The Duluth Missabe and Iron Range railroad tracks are at the lower left, continuing to the ore docks where three vessels are waiting to be loaded with ore.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Duluth, Kathryn A. Martin Library, Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections
The counterweight is visible through the north tower's structural elements. Two counterweights move in opposition to the bridge. The bridge span weights about 1,000 tons. The two counterweights weigh about 500 tons each. When the bridge span goes up the counterweights go down.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Duluth, Kathryn A. Martin Library, Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections
This view from the crest of the hillside of Duluth shows a vessel steaming toward the aerial bridge. A prominent sign is visible on the bayside of Minnesota Point advertising Marine Iron and Shipbuilding. That business was located for years at the foot of Eleventh Avenue West and bayfront. The first ship launched in the Twin Ports for service in World War II was at the Marine Iron and Shipbuilding Co., April 23, 1941. A Duluth newspaper on July 1, 1966 ,reported that the former Marshall-Wells Building on Lake Avenue South has been purchased by Marine Iron and Shipbuilding Co. and Modern Constructors Inc. The assessors office lists the value of the property at $736,000.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Duluth, Kathryn A. Martin Library, Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections
Unidentified vessel and crew leave the Duluth harbor. They will pass under the raised lift span of the bridge in calm water. Minnesota Point is at the right with homes visible on Minnesota Avenue. The 6-foot tall lighthouse at the right is 107-years old. It was offered for sale in August 2008 by the federal government with limitations. Its formal name is South Breakwater Inner Light Tower and was owned by the federal government. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The towers light was first lit in 1901. It was bought in December 2008 by Steve Sola and Matt Kampf of Duluth. Their winning bid was more than $31,000. Mr. Sola grew up on Park Point, Kamps in Hibbing, but lived many years on Cape Cod before moving to Duluth. In an interview the men said they didn't know what they were going to do with it. The federal authorities will not allow the structure to be relocated.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Duluth, Kathryn A. Martin Library, Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections
A vessel enters the harbor in this view of the canal with downtown Duluth in the upper portion of the image and Minnesota Point at the bottom left. Fifth Avenue West runs directly from the St. Louis County Courthouse to the waterfront. Both the Soo Line passenger depot and its train sheds and the Union Depot and its train sheds are to the left of Fifth Avenue West. To the right of the Fifth Avenue West overpass is the Arena Auditorium complex that celebrated its grand opening in August 1966. The sand beach of Park Point is in the foreground. The Fire department headquarters building is at 608 West First Street.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Duluth, Kathryn A. Martin Library, Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections
Two unidentified men hold a copy of a national magazine whose cover features the Aerial Bridge. These men are probably with the Chamber of Commerce. The June 14, 1947, Saturday Evening Post cover of Duluth Aerial Bridge with boat is by John Atherton. John Carlton Atherton was born in Brainerd, Minnesota, on June 7, 1900. Atherton would eventually illustrate over forty covers for Saturday Evening Post, starting with his December 1942 design, Patient Dog. In the late 1940s, Albert Dorne, fellow Saturday Evening Post illustrator, founded the Famous Artists School, an institution to teach the art of correspondence illustration. John Atherton was among the famous artists such as Al Parker, Jon Witcomb, and Norman Rockwell, who contributed to the program. Atherton eventually moved to Arlington, Vermont. The famous illustrator and artist died at age fifty-two (in 1952) in a drowning accident while fly-fishing in New Brunswick, Canada. He was survived by his wife, Maxine Breeze.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Duluth, Kathryn A. Martin Library, Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections
View from near Enger Memorial Tower in Enger Park. The park is located at Sixteenth Avenue West and Skyline Parkway Drive. The 330 acre Enger Park was dedicated June 15, 1939 by Olav, Crown Prince of Norway. Bert J. Enger (1864-1931) fifth member of Duluth's Hall of Fame, who provided funds for a municipal golf course, left two-thirds of his $185,000 estate to civic enterprises and charitable organizations including: Aftenro Society, Bethany Children's Home, Wesley Methodist church, Norwegian-American Historical Society, Salvation Army, Lighthouse for the Blind, and Miller Memorial hospital maintenance fund. Enger park, acquired partly by gift from Bert Enger, was acquired by the city of Duluth between 1891 and 1928. Enger Tower cost $30,000 to build, is six stories high, 70 feet tall, 583 feet above Lake Superior. You can see 31.4 miles on a clear day. It has a 10 foot conical shaped beacon at the top with 32 vertical tubes. One third of the $185,000 Enger estate, $61,000, was to be used for a civic memorial.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Duluth, Kathryn A. Martin Library, Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections
View from near Enger Memorial Tower in Enger Park. The park is located at Sixteenth Avenue West and Skyline Parkway Drive. The 330 acre Enger Park was dedicated June 15, 1939 by Olav, Crown Prince of Norway. Bert J. Enger (1864-1931) fifth member of Duluth's Hall of Fame, who provided funds for a municipal golf course, left two-thirds of his $185,000 estate to civic enterprises and charitable organizations including: Aftenro Society, Bethany Children's Home, Wesley Methodist church, Norwegian-American Historical Society, Salvation Army, Lighthouse for the Blind, and Miller Memorial hospital maintenance fund. Enger park, acquired partly by gift from Bert Enger, was acquired by the city of Duluth between 1891 and 1928. Enger Tower cost $30,000 to build, is six stories high, 70 feet tall, 583 feet above Lake Superior. You can see 31.4 miles on a clear day. It has a 10 foot conical shaped beacon at the top with 32 vertical tubes. One third of the $185,000 Enger estate, $61,000, was to be used for a civic memorial.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Duluth, Kathryn A. Martin Library, Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections
This image shows a view from about Ninth Avenue West and waterfront at the top right corner of the shot to First Avenue East and Second Street at the lower left corner of the shot. Duluth Terminal and Cold Storage Company is at Ninth Avenue West and Railroad Street or 400 South Ninth Avenue West. The 1892 Central High School and its clock tower occupy the block on Second Street between Lake Avenue and First Avenue East in the foreground. The Canal Park area and the waterfront warehouse districts are still very industrial. The arena auditorium will not open until August 1966, in the area still filled with scrap in the middle-top of this photograph. Railroad and Commerce streets run parallel to the hillside below Superior Street and the area is well described by their names.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Duluth, Kathryn A. Martin Library, Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections