Duluth Aerial Bridge

[Guest]

Grew up in Duluth and I recall a few times mom and I would go to Canal Park and watch the ships. Not only that, but I also recall riding the bridge deck when it lifted as well. Not sure if the bridge operators simply let this slide or not. I heard rumors that there was a charge for the ride up, but I do not recall ever having to pay.

I grew up on Park Point, south side of the bridge in the '50's-60's and you would pay like a quarter or 50 cents to ride up. They had built a chain link "cage" on the lake side of the bridge. Rode it quite a bit. My dad was a mate at the time with Pittsburgh/USS GLF so I got to ride over his boat and on it!

[Guest]

By memory, a story in the late 80's or early 90's from the Minneapolis Strib of a lady that panicked and ran off the bridge during lift to her gruesome demise ended this delightful opportunity.

In looking this up I did find an incident in August of 1986 when the Vista Queen ran into the Duluth Aerial Lift Bridge.

[hausen]

By memory, a story in the late 80's or early 90's from the Minneapolis Strib of a lady that panicked and ran off the bridge during lift to her gruesome demise ended this delightful opportunity.

The opportunity for the general public to ride the bridge as a leisure activity was already a thing of the past many years before the 1990 accident. Aerial Bridge rides as a paid attraction lasted just a few years in the 1960s or early 1970s. Coordinating a group of the general public for a lift and managing them during the event proved to be too much of a hassle and the practice was discontinued.

Seems like with today's regimented summer lift schedule for small craft, reduced number of freighter passages, publicly-available AIS data, smartphone technology, and robust tourism industry, enabling something like this again on a limited basis would be more feasible.

[garbear]

Wasn't there another fatal accident when the bridge was going up and a young man decided to hold on to one of the beams underneath the bridge and he didn't let go until he couldn't hold on anymore and he fell to his death?

[captrmetz]

The bridge tender let me ride the bridge up when I told him I was Mate on the Incan Superior. 1976

[Guest]

Details of the 1990 bridge fatality.
http://zenithcity.com/thisday/june-10-1 ... ft-bridge/

[Paul A]

By memory, a story in the late 80's or early 90's from the Minneapolis Strib of a lady that panicked and ran off the bridge during lift to her gruesome demise ended this delightful opportunity.

[Scott]

Grew up in Duluth and I recall a few times mom and I would go to Canal Park and watch the ships. Not only that, but I also recall riding the bridge deck when it lifted as well. Not sure if the bridge operators simply let this slide or not. I heard rumors that there was a charge for the ride up, but I do not recall ever having to pay.

[hugh3]

I know that back in the 60's you could ride the bridge up/down when it rised for boat passage for I believe a dollar. Had been "up the street" and when got back to the ore dock the boat was backing away from the dock. Took a cab down to the bridge and when my boat went under I yelled down to the Mate that I would catch her down in S. Chicago. Needless the Captain was not too happy

[Guest]

Yes, you used to be able to pay for a ride. Don't know when that stopped.

[Guest]

Photographs of ships entering or leaving Duluth taken from the raised Aerial Bridge from the 1980s and into the early 1990s appear to be very common. Was there a way to be allowed onto the bridge for raising back then, or were these images mostly taken by an individual involved with operating the bridge?