I’ll admit, we ended up in Duluth Minnesota at first because it was a cheap flight and figured it would be a good starting point for a drive along Lake Superior. Don’t underestimate Duluth, though, it has some great sites that you won’t want to miss before you head out on your drive up the shoreline!
Getting There
Location: Far western shore of Lake Superior of the Great Lakes.
Transport: I’d recommend flying into Duluth if you can as it’s 2.5 hours north of Minneapolis by car. The airport was very easy to navigate and car rental was a breeze.
First Stop in Historic Duluth: Aerial Lift Bridge
One of the most iconic landmarks in the city is the Aerial Lift Bridge. This mammoth steel and cable structure was completed in 1905, making it over 100 years old and the oldest of all structural landmarks in the city. On June 6, 1973, the Aerial Lift Bridge of Duluth was entered in the National Register of Historic Places. It connects the “mainland” with Minnesota Point, a five-mile-long sandbar also known as Park Point.
The bridge spans the Duluth shipping canal. This canal was dug in 1870 to connect Lake Superior to the St. Louis River but residents needed a way to cross the canal. A footbridge was too rickety across the span, and a ferry turned out to be unreliable enough through the cold winters. Searching for a better solution, in 1892 a competition was held to find a better way.
The winning design was for a vertical lift bridge that could move out of the way of shipping traffic but the plans were not accepted by the governing body who needed to approve the project. The bridge design was not wasted, however. It was used in Chicago for the South Halsted Street Bridge, which was in place through 1932.
Duluth residents still needed a way to cross, so a plan emerged to borrow a design from a bridge in France which called for a gondola-style carriage capable of being shuttled back and forth across a vertical lift. When it opened in 1905, the carriage could hold up to 350 people plus wagons, carriages and automobiles!
The bridge has been updated since the original, but the concept remains. We were fortunate enough to see the vertical lift move out of the way for a cruise boat passing underneath, and we also took the opportunity to drive over the bridge and back.
Duluth Maritime Visitor's Center
Another must-visit site is the Lake Superior Maritime Visitor Center. Located in the historic Canal Park at the foot of the Aerial Lift Bridge, this center offers world-class viewing of shipping vessels entering and leaving the Duluth-Superior Harbor. The center is dedicated to preserving the maritime history of the area.
Exhibits demonstrate the history and operations of upper Great Lakes commercial shipping and the Aerial Lift Bridge. They’ve really done a great job in this museum. In particular, check out the historically accurate replica cabins and pilothouse from typical ships which ploughed the waves of Lake Superior in years past.
Duluth and the Edmund Fitzgerald
The Edmund Fitzgerald was an American Great Lakes freighter that sank in Lake Superior during a storm on November 10, 1975, with the loss of all 29 crew members. When launched on June 7, 1958, she was the largest ship on the Great Lakes and remains the largest to have sunk there.
Its mysterious demise inspired Gordon Lightfoot’s hit song “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” (1976), which helped make it the most famous shipwreck in the Great Lakes.
The Maritime Museum in the Visitor’s Center has a great exhibition on the ship.
Historic Duluth Final Stop: Glensheen
Glensheen is a 20,000 square foot mansion in Duluth, which today is operated by the University of Minnesota-Duluth as a historic house museum. The mansion was built between 1905 and 1908 by Chester and Clara Congdon. This influential family is known for opening up iron mining in this region and setting aside land for public use, such as the North Shore Scenic Highway and Congdon Park.
Congdon was born in New York and met his wife while attending college there. After graduating, they moved to Wisconsin where he was a teacher and eventually turned to law with a successful practice in Minnesota. In 1892, they moved to Duluth and were hired to represent the Oliver Mining Company.
Oliver was the second largest steel producer in the nation after Andrew Carnegie. It was through this relationship that Congdon accrued his enormous wealth. He felt business leaders had an obligation to help their local communities and he became a politician in 1909 soon after Glensheen was built.
The mansion is perched on the shore of Lake Superior and is the most visited historic home in Minnesota. The 12-acre estate features gardens, bridges, and the famous 39-room mansion built with remarkable 20th-century craftsmanship, telling the story of the Duluth region. The collection is intact, meaning that the top hat in the closet was Chester Congdon’s, the letters in the desk drawer were written by Clara, and the sheets in the linen closet were organized by the Congdons’ 2nd-floor maid nearly 100 years ago.
Tours of the home are available and highly recommended!
Inspired to visit Duluth? We went in the summer and it was nice and cool. It was July and we were comfortable in jeans and t-shirts with a jacket in the morning and evening.
I would also highly recommend the Fairfield Inn and Suites Duluth Waterfront. The staff were incredibly friendly, the rooms were fantastic and we had a very cool view of the Aerial bridge at night. It’s well lit at night, so it was fun to see from our window. Ask for a high room facing the bridge!