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August 1941. "Entering Duluth, Minnesota." Medium format acetate negative by John Vachon for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.
This bridge, once owned by Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range railroad, now part of CN, provided access from the Missabe Range where the ore was transferred to lake steamers for delivery to various midwestern steel mills. (The Edmund Fitzgerald had loaded taconite, a processed ore, at nearby Superior Wisconsin.)
The DM&IR put their gigantic "Yellowstone" locomotives to good use during WWII's incredible demand for steel. You can read more about these locomotives here:
https://www.steamlocomotive.com/locobase.php?country=USA&wheel=2-8-8-4&r...
Ever since I watched this movie in the 80's, this is all I can think about.
I have always marveled at the number of rivets in plate girders such as these. The fabricating shops where they were made must have been a beehive of activity. The overhead cranes to move the heavy material and the punch machines to make the holes. The shears that cut the plate to size and the crew that assembled all the pieces, heated the rivets and formed the head with pneumatic guns while the guy on the other side bucked-up. The din would have been terrific.
Current view of train tracks that pass over near the intersection of Interstate 35 and Highway 2 west of Duluth. You can see the distant power generation station and tower still exist out in the St. Louis River.
Three-month old Bob Dylan is somewhere in this photo.
Where are U going?
Duluth is other way
You're leaving us?
Have enough Gas?
Go, just go
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