Beautiful City Of Duluth Vertical Lift Bridge Pin.
Although originally designed and currently configured as a vertical lift bridge, the Aerial Lift Bridge in Duluth began life as an aerial transfer bridge, an extremely rare type inspired by the only other such structure in the world – a suspended car bridge at Rouen, France.
The need for a bridge here first arose in 1871, when Duluth residents dug through the narrow slit of land known as Minnesota Point to create a harbor at the head of the Great Lakes. As advantageous as the shipping canal was for the city, it left citizens on the Point cut off from the mainland. In 1892 Duluth held a competition for a bridge design that would enable residents to cross without interrupting traffic in the shipping lane. The winning design, engineered by John Alexander Low Waddell, would have been the world’s first high-rise vertical lift bridge. But the Duluth project was cancelled before construction began and Waddell’s design was later built in Chicago. In 1905 Duluth finally built its bridge – an aerial transfer bridge with a huge gondola that could carry more than 60 tons of traffic, from pedestrians and horse-drawn wagons to automobiles. The 300-foot crossing took one minute to complete and was made every five minutes when traffic was heavy.
In 1929 the bridge was modified to accommodate a growing population on the Point and increasing tourist traffic. The gondola was removed, the height of the top span increased and structural supports incorporated into the towers to carry the counterweight roadway. This remodeling – coincidentally designed by a successor to Waddell’s engineering company – transformed the bridge into a vertical lift bridge much like the one originally conceived in 1892.
The Aerial Lift Bridge, one of the most popular tourist attractions in Minnesota, was constructed in 1904-1905 as the Aerial Ferry Bridge. Before that time, Park Point was only accessible by ferry boats and, during the winter months, a temporary suspension bridge. The original Aerial Ferry Bridge consisted of much of today's structure but, instead of the lift span, a suspended car, or gondola, ferried people and vehicles on a one-minute trip across the canal. The gondola could carry the equivalent of a loaded street car, two loaded wagons with teams, and 350 people. The gondola made twelve trips per hour between 5:00 a.m. and midnight and two trips per hour from midnight until morning. The lift span was added in 1929-1930 to handle increased traffic. At that time, the bridge operators moved from running the gondola to working in the control house in the center of the span. The bridge first lifted for a vessel on March 29, 1930. The Aerial Bridge lifts an average of 5,500 times a year, and over forty times a day during the summer months. It is owned and operated by the City of Duluth.
The pin is approximately 1 ½ of an inch long and ½ of an inch in height as you can see in the photo. Great tie tack or addition to any Jacket. Rare item, they make great gifts for your favorite Great Lakes or City of Duluth fan.
Pins are stamped from metal, Then painted and some have epoxy coating for durability.
I hope you will treasure these memories as jewelry to be worn, and not merely as trinkets to be discarded and forgotten.
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