The crew of the Kansas City Bridge Company, who converted the Aerial Transfer Bridge into the Aerial Lift Bridge, including one gentleman seated in the front row, smoking a cigarette, who looks remarkably like actor Sean Penn. (Image: Lake Superior Maritime Collection.)
On this day in Duluth in 1929, thousands of Duluthians gathered to watch as the 410-ton top span of the Aerial Transfer Bridge was cut loose and raised forty-one feet higher during its conversion to the Aerial Lift Bridge. The last trip of the Transfer Bridge had taken place on July 2, and for over three months workers had been converting the transfer bridge into a lift bridge. The top span—unnecessary for the lift bridge’s operation but retained to carry water, sewage, power, and communication lines—needed to be raised another 41 feet to allow the lift span to rise to 135 feet, high enough for all shipping traffic to pass beneath. A crowd estimated at five thousand gathered near the bridge on the morning of Saturday, October 19, to watch as workers from the Kansas City Bridge Company armed with acetylene torches cut straps and rivets, freeing the bridge’s entire overhead truss—all 410 tons of it. They then began to slowly raise it into its new position, winching it into place by 10:30 a.m. The crowd was never bored. A seaplane pilot flew his plane under the bridge as the span was being raised, and at least one steel worker mugged it up for the crowd, at one point standing on his head atop the bridge’s tallest point, kicking his feet in the air. Even a film crew was on hand to capture the moment. Read all about the Aerial Transfer Bridge’s conversion to the Aerial Lift Bridge here. The entire story of the bridge, going back to the digging of the ship canal it traverses, is found within the pages of Crossing the Canal.
The Aerial Bridge on October 19, 1929. At this point, workers are using torches to disconnect the top span. (Image: Lake Superior Maritime Collection.)
The Aerial Bridge on October 19, 1929. The top span has been raised into its new position. (Image: Lake Superior Maritime Collection.)
