The aerial bridge over the Duluth Ship Canal has been called "Duluth's Eiffel Tower" and the "gateway to the world," but no matter what lofty labels poets and politicians appluy to it, Duluth built its ffamous bridge for one simple purpose: Crossing the Canal. In 1871 the citizens of Duluth finished cutting a canal through Minnesota Point, turning the isthmus into an island and splitting the fledgling city in two. It would take almost 35 years before a safe, permanent, and truly unique bridge was built to cross the canal and reunite Duluth with the community of Park Point, making the city whiole again. Crossing the Canal tells the complete story of the bridge, from cutting the canal through the bridge's 100th anniversary, separating facts from myths while creating a vivid picture of the life of Duluth's iconic landmark. A finalist for the Minnesota Book Award. (Tony Dierckins)

Crossing the Canal

Arts & Photography

Tony Dierckins

Photography & Video

Zenith City Press

When Duluththe Zenith City of the Unsalted Seasfirst became a city in 1870, two- and three-masted schooners commonly docked in her harborbut steam-powered freighters and ore boats replaced most sailing vessels by 1900. The age of sail returns to Duluth as reconstructed historic ships and replica vessels sail from around the globe to take part in the Zenith Citys semi-annual Tall Ships Duluth festival, once again filling the harbor with the sound of flapping canvas and creaking ropes. Noted Duluth photographer Dennis OHara has captured these maritime celebrations with his camera. Inside you will find: more than 75 photos of tall ships in Duluth & on Lake Superior from 2008 to 2011; a history of tall ships on Lake Superior from 1734 to 2013; and bios of each ship that has participated in Tall Ships Duluth from 2008 to 2013.

Tall Ships in the Zenith City

Engineering & Transportation

Transportation

In 1868, following his father’s death, fifteen-year-old Chester Congdon went to work in a lumber yard. He told his mother that someday he wanted “to be better off than everybody else.” Thanks to his skills as an attorney, wise investments, and shrewd business strategies that found him entangled with John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, and J. P. Morgan, by 1902 Congdon had become one of the wealthiest men in Minnesota. In 1905, Chester and his wife, Clara, began building a grand home on the north shore of Lake Superior in Duluth, Minnesota: Glensheen, a self-sustaining estate that survives today as a symbol of Congdon’s success and Duluth’s gilded age, when its East End mansions housed the families of grain trade commissioners, lumber barons, mining magnates―and their attorneys. Over 200 modern and historic photographs guide you along a detailed room-by-room tour of the Minnesota’s most famous mansion and stroll through the estate grounds as you learn the story of the Congdon family and how Chester created the fortune that financed their grand home on Lake Superior’s North Shore. Five percent of the publisher's sales of this book directly support Glensheen Historic Estate.

Glensheen

Duluth is a community of parks, with 170 separate greenspaces, sports facilities, and scenic boulevards comprising nearly 12,000 acres or roughly 25 percent of the city. Illustrated with over 250 photographs, sketches, and lithographs, Duluth's Historic Parks covers the creation and development of today's Skyline Parkway and Duluth's major historic parks (Lincoln Park, Chester Park, Lester Park, Fairmount Park, Leif Erikson Park, Congdon Park, Kitchi Gammi Park, Enger Park, Chambers Grove, Fond du Lac Park, Hartley Park) and parks located on Minnesota Point as well as the city's undeveloped parks, playgrounds, and sports venues, unfolding the story of how Duluthians from all walks of life gave their time, energy, and often personal wealth to ensure a quality of life and appreciation of nature that makes the Zenith City remarkable as one of the greenest modern communities in the nation, if not the world.

Duluth's Historic Parks: Their First 100 Years

History

Nancy Nelson

Americas

History of the breweries that served Duluth, Minnesota, and Superior, Wisconsin, from 1859 to 2018. Includes nearly 600 photos and lithographs.

Naturally Brewed, Naturally Better: The Historic Breweries of Duluth & Superior

Pete Clure

Duluth's Grand Old Archtecture 1870-1940

Maryanne C. Norton

In 50 brief tales, award-winning Minnesota author and historian Tony Dierckins chronicles the life of Duluth's famed aerial bridge, from the span's construction as an aerial transfer bridge to its 1930 conversion into a vertical lift bridge, from how it works to how it came to symbolize the Zenith City of the Unsalted Seas. You'll also discover the remarkable history of the canal it crosses, including the myth of its creation, the lighthouses that grace its piers, and Duluth's 35-year struggle to build a bridge over it. Illustrated with over 125 historic & modern photos, sketches, maps & diagrams

Duluth's Aerial Bridge

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Books by Tony Dierckins