Duluth Aerial Lift Bridge History

Before the Bridge

In 1871, Duluthians created a canal by digging a path through Minnesota Point, connecting the Duluth Harbor with Lake Superior. In those early days of the city, Park Point had already become a popular summer recreation area. In the following decades, visitors used boats and ferries to get from one side of the canal to the other.

Bridge Design Contest

In 1891, the City of Duluth held a bridge design contest for easier access to Park Point. 

While a firm from Milwaukee won first prize for their two-level drawbridge design, it was deemed too expensive to build. 

Similarly, the second place design, which was a plan for an early lift bridge created by John Alexander Low Wadell, was also rejected for fear of blocking the shipping canal. 

For these reasons, other ideas were needed.

A Bridge Was Born

Duluth’s Aerial Bridge was originally built in 1905, designed by Thomas F. McGilvray. 

It was initially a transporter bridge, also known as a ferry bridge or aerial transfer bridge. This is a special type of bridge over a waterway with low shores on both sides. Transporter bridges have a high structure from which hangs a car, often resembling a short section of the road or an elevated ferry boat.

This bridge car carried vehicles and people back and forth from one side of the canal to the other. 

Reimagining the Park Point Bridge

In 1930, C.A.P. Turner suggested redesigning the bridge as a vertical lift bridge.

The lift bridge was redesigned by the firm Harrington, Howard, & Ash, formerly associated with engineer J.A.L. Wadell, who had won second place in the bridge design contest almost 40 years earlier. 

The Aerial Lift Bridge Today

One unique feature of the Duluth Aerial Lift Bridge is that it has two trusses: the original one from the transporter bridge on top, and the newer moving truss that can be raised and lowered to allow ships and boats to pass underneath.

Over the years, the vertical lift bridge has become a symbol and landmark of Duluth, a popular backdrop for local photographers, and is depicted on keychains and souvenirs. 

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