The Soo Locks and the International Bridge

Location: Brimley State Park; Brimley, Michigan
(click pics to enlarge)

Although I have moved on, this is a catch up post.

One of the main reasons I came to the Sault (pronounced "sue") St. Marie area was to see the International Bridge because my father helped build it back in 1961 and 1962. He went to work with the construction company in 1958 and this was his third project, counting a short project in Iowa. At this time in his career he would have been a Concrete Superintendent. So in the pictures, some of the concrete poured would have been supervised by him. I do not know which parts because the project was a joint venture between two contractors and I don't know the breakdown of who did what. I'm pretty sure though that all of the good looking and strong concrete was poured by his crews.

The International Bridge connects the two Sault St. Marie cities, one on each side of the border. It was completed in 1962 and is 2.8 miles long. It spans the Saint Mary's River which connects Lake Superior to Lake Huron. For some reason, that I haven't figured out yet, they crossed the river exactly where the Soo (pronounced "sue") Locks are located. There is a lot going on at this location.

As I mentioned before, Lake Superior is 21 feet higher than Lake Huron. The area around Lake Superior has a lot of natural resources such as iron ore, limestone and timber. These materials were needed at the mills located along the lower great lakes. To get them there economically, you need a set of River Locks to lower/raise boats that 21 feet. The first set of locks were began in 1855 and today there are 5 locks located at Sault St. Marie with 4 of them in the U.S. and the fifth one on the Canadian side. Over 10,000 ships per year pass through these locks. They are closed during January, February and March for maintenance while the lakes are frozen. So that 10,000 ships is in a time of only 9 months. It is a very busy place. There is a small hydroelectric power house that provides the electricity for the operation so it is self sufficient as far as power.The whole operation is owned and run by the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers and passage through the locks is free. Yep, Free. 

I guess having the locks, bridge, dam and powerhouse all in the same location was messy enough so they allowed the railroad to cross here too. There is only one set of tracks but there are 3 bridges. Two of the bridges cross the American locks and one crosses the Canadian lock. It seems as though the railroad couldn't make up their minds as to what kind of bridge to build so they just built 3 different ones.

The best way to see all of these things is by boat and of course there is a company that provides that tour. They take you through the locks and you pass under the bridges. The unexpected part of the trip began at the dock. The docks for the boat tour is next to the Edison Sault Hydroelectric Power Plant. It is the longest horizontal shaft power plant in the world and it is 112 years old. This plant should be held up as an example of the benefits of Hydroelectric power.

I've bored you with enough details. The pictures will have captions explaining some of them.

I may have shown this picture before
but here it is again. It is a "thinking
bench" along Lake Superior near
my campsite.

Lake Superior

Lake Superior

Looking back toward the campground

Tour boat on the right. In the background
is the Edison Sault Hydroelectric
Power Plant built in 1902.

Boarding Area



Another view of the Hydro Plant

A close up of the Hydro Plant.
The water exits at each of those
 arches at the water level
 

American Locks on left. Center is
the spillway area.

Canada

An overall view of everything

The power house on left. The rapids
(spillway) in the middle. International
Bridge and Railroad in background

Approaching the Canadian lock.
It is the smallest of the five.
 

Inside the Canadian lock. The
difference between the water level
and the water mark at the top is
how much we need to be raised.

Still in the lock but we have been
raised the 21 feet to match
the level of Lake Superior. The
gates are about to open.

Leaving the Canadian lock. In the
lock channel. That is one of the spans
of the International Bridge that
we are about to go under. The two
trusses on the right are swing spans,
one is for a road and the other is
for the railroad. The railroad passes
through here about 4 times a day.

At the end of the Canadian lock
channel. Some of the masonry work
on the left date back nearly 100 years
 

Steel mill on the Canadian side

 

Good view of the International Bridge
 

Emergency closure dams to be
used if the lock fails. It will seal
the lock and prevent further damage.

Approaching one of the American
locks. Notice the viewing grandstands
on the right.

In the lock and will be lowered
the 21 feet. Notice the ship in the
lock to the left. He is being raised
the 21 feet.

We have been lowered the 21 feet
and the gates are opening and the
emergency boom is raising.

This downstream of the locks.
The pile of rocks mark the boundry
between Canada and the U.S.
It is has been there over 100 years.

Floating dry dock. The dock is sunk
by flooding ballast tanks underneath it.
The boat is then floating in and the
ballast tanks pumped out thereby
raising the dock and putting the
boat in the dry.

This boat carries supplies to large
ships in the river. The larger ship
doesn't stop. This boat ties up to the
side of the big ship and gives them
things like groceries, etc.
 

This picture shows just about everything.
We are in the lock channel to one of the
American locks. To the left is one of
the other American locks. We are
going under the railroad "lift span"
bridge. The railroad bridge that spans
the lock to the left is a "double leaf bascule"
bridge (commonly known as a drawbridge).
After going under the railroad, the
International Bridge is in the background.

It was a good tour. I was able to see everything I came to see.

Good job Dad, it is still looking good.

Ya'll take care of each other. Cya down the road.

New Campground and the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum

Location: Brimley State Park; Brimley, Michigan
(click pics to enlarge)

I'm playing catch up on the blog posts again. Today is the 24th but this post will be about exploring on the 20th. I blame this delay on Canada and Verizon. I'm close enough to Canada that Verizon thinks I've crossed the border and am in a roaming area where the roaming charge for data is $2.00 per MB. At the rate I use data, my bill would been a couple thousand dollars if I don't switch some of the devices off.  

Brimley State Park is located in Brimley, Michigan on Whitefish Bay/Lake Superior about 25 miles west of Sault St. Marie, Michigan. "Sault" is pronounced "Soo" and means 'river rapids'. So, Sault St. Marie means "the river rapids on the Saint Mary River". The St. Mary river connects Lake Superior to Lake Huron. Lake Superior is 21 feet higher than Lake Huron. Lake Superior is the largest of the five Great Lakes and the last one for me to visit. There has been a constant misting rain with fog that hangs around all day. I was here for four days and got lucky with 2 days of clear weather to see the two things I came to see.

 My exploration of the 19th took me north of Brimley along the coast to Whitefish Point. It is where the Whitefish Point Light Station and The Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum are located. There are over 500 known shipwrecks in Lake Superior and of those, more that 300 are around Whitefish Point. Whitefish Point is a peninsula that helps form Whitefish Bay. Whitefish Bay is the beginning empties into the Saint Mary's River which ultimately connects to Lake Huron. During the late 1800's there were more than 3100 commercial ships on the lake; today there is less than 200. Twenty foot high waves are common on the lake during winter storms with over thirty foot waves being recorded.

One of the more famous shipwrecks is the Edmund Fitzgerald which sank in 1975 with the loss of the entire 29 man crew. She was only 17 miles from Whitefish Point and the relative safety of Whitefish Bay. The Fitzgerald was one of the largest ships on the lake and had been moving iron ore on the lake for 17 years before she sank. She sank during a terrible November storm and the reason for her sinking is still in doubt. Several dives have been made to the ship in search of the reason for her sinking. On one of the last dives, the ship's bell was raised at the request of the family members of the crew that died in the sinking. The bell is now on display at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum and that is one of the main reasons for me going to Whitefish Point.

Freedom and Liberty's Campsite
You can see the Lake just to
the left of Liberty thru
the trees.

A nice "thinking bench" looking
out to Whitefish Bay/Lake
Superior. It is about 300 feet
from the campsite.

Another view of Whitefish Bay

And yet another view of Whitefish Bay

From the "thinking bench" looking
back towards the campsite

A view of the bay from the
boat ramp in the campground

The bell from the
Edmund Fitzgerald

A lego model of the Edmund Fitzgeral
made of 18,000 peices

An overall view of the museum
Too much detail to list everything
The lighting was poor inside, so
some of the pictures didn't turn out
too good. They keep it dark to
set the mood for shipwrecks and
loss of lives.
 

A 2nd order Fresnel lens
used in lighthouses. It
is 9 feet in diameter
and weighs 3,500 pounds.
There are 344 separate
crystal prisms that will
focus a small light into a
powerful light beam that
can be seen for over
28 miles


 



A view out to Lake Superior
from the Whitefish Point
Light Station

Another view of Lake Superior
from Whitefish Bay Light Station

Whitefish Bay Light Station

This picture is for Mrs. Mac's third grade
class. In another picture from an old
post, I had Cheetos. The kids said that
wasn't healthy so I have replaced the
Cheetos (dairy product) with a
vegetable product. In the skillet are a
couple fish filets and on the upper right
is my new favorite fruit, a Pluot.

Ya'll take care of each other. Cya down the road.

Somewhere in Time on Mackinac Island

Location: Straits State Park; St. Ignace, Michigan
(click pics to enlarge)

Going to Mackinac Island was a place I have been wanting to go since about 1980. That was when I first saw the movie, "Somewhere in Time", with Jane Seymour and Christopher Reeve. A large part of the movie was set around the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island. I braved the chilly, windy and cloudy weather to go to the island yesterday. There are three ferry company's in St. Ignace that run boats back and forth to the island. I chose the jet boat ferry because the rooster tail behind it looks cool. Logical choice, uh? About every fourth trip, the ferry goes the long way to the island by taking a side trip under the Mackinac Bridge. As I said in the last post, the bridge just sort of dominates everything in this area. Of course I chose the trip that included the bridge side trip. The trip took about 40 minutes. During the winter, after Lake Huron freezes, the permanent residents of the island auger holes in the ice and stick their old Christmas trees in the hole to mark an 'ice road' between the island and St. Ignace.  

Motor vehicles are not allowed on the island so transportation is either walking, riding a bike, riding a horse or riding in a carriage. Well, this old fat man knew better than to try to walk to the places I wanted to see so I bought a ticket for a carriage ride. Besides the Grand Hotel, I wanted to see the Butterfly Conservatory and the Military Cemetery. The butterfly exhibit was a little disappointing because of the lack of a lot of butterflies. There were some very colorful ones, but only a few. The military cemetery is only one of five military cemeteries that are allowed to fly the flag at half staff all the time. The other four are Arlington, Pearl Harbor, Gettysburg and a D-day cemetery in France. The cemetery on the island is a very small one but has a very large number of unknowns, which makes it unique. 

The Grand Hotel was built in 1887 and has had 5 different U.S. Presidents visit. None of the 385 rooms are decorated/designed the same. Seven different first ladies have designed rooms at the hotel. The only ones since 1960 that have not designed one are Pat Nixon, Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama. I'm not sure why they didn't design one. The hotel has the longest porch in the world at 660 feet. The ceiling of the porch is painted a light blue so birds think it is the sky and won't build nests in that area. Also, between the posts on the porch is multiple runs of fishing line. They are hard to see and you have to really look for them. The fishing line appears as a solid wall to the radar used by bats to "see" so they stay away from the porch. There was very little about the movie at the hotel.

Overall, I was a little disappointed with several things on the island. I'm glad I went and it was a nice day spent exploring new things. Perhaps my expectations were just too high.

I lost one of my friends yesterday. Greg Wall lost his battle with the cancer he had been fighting for more than a year. We worked together for more than 25 years. He was a good and honorable man who will be missed by many people. He knows all the answers now. You can rest now Greg.

You can see the chilly weather
in the sky and flags

Looking out to Lake Huron from
the ferry dock. Interesting sky
that changed throughout the
day

The side trip to the bridge. I'm sure
ya'll are getting tired of seeing it.

Downtown Mackinac Island. Typical
tourist city street. The tourist are called
"fudgies" by the locals because
of all the shops/stores selling
fudge. I tried some and it was
pretty good.

Carriage museum

The Butterfly Garden
a small disappointment

The second part of the trip is
by a 3 horse carriage

Two other items in the Carriage
Museum. A fancy coach and a
hurst.

Military Cemetery

Side view of our carriage ride
through the woods

View of Lake Huron with the
cloudy sky from one of the
stops to rest the horses.



Our horses getting a water break

The stable for some of the horses

The famous porch of the
Grand Hotel.

The front yard of the Grand Hotel.

Looking to the left along the
porch

Looking to the right along the
porch.

The lobby area of the Hotel

Looking at the whole porch
from one end

This is the view I had when
I sat down for a rest

Some of the local houses next door
to the Hotel

The front view of the Hotel

The swimming pool of the Hotel
with the lake in the background

Stairs going up the porch. The setting
of one of the scenes from
the movie

Final view as I walked away

This was taken while waiting for the ferry

The last view and picture of the
Mackinac Bridge

The last view of the Grand Hotel

A selfie with the rooster tail of the
ferry in the background.
 Ooops, I forgot to
smile.

Tomorrow is moving day. I'll be heading to Brimley State Park which is near Sault St. Marie, Michigan. I'll be there for 4 days to see a couple of things.

Ya'll take care of each other. Cya down the road.