Sault (pronounced ‘soo’) Saint Marie is the first settlement in North America, established by a French missionary about the time of Plymouth Rock. The town sits on both sides of the Marie River that connects Lake Superior and Lake Huron so it is both American and Canada. The Sault Saint Marie Locks help move ships over what used to be rapids that pioneers portaged around, taking up to 2 months to move goods from one lake to the other. Today the locks help make that transition in 15 minutes.
We rode in the tour boat through the locks to the bay leading to Lake Superior, taking in the sights along the shoreline on both sides including a steel mill and a 1/4 mile long hydro-electric generating facility. Three different container ships went throughout the locks during our tour, one was 1000 ft. long and 150 ft wide. There are 5 locks but two are being decommissioned and one is for pleasure craft only but currently is closed because the railroad track is stuck and won’t lift up over the lock to let tall boats through. An automobile bridge and a railroad bridge span the river. The car bridge is very tall but the railroad bridge has to be lifted four times a day to allow the tall ships to pass under it.
It was a gloomy and rainy day, so we didn’t miss out on biking or hiking.
No comments:
Post a Comment