Twin Ports - Definition

The Twin Ports of Duluth, Minnesota and Superior, Wisconsin are located at the western tip of Lake Superior, the westernmost of North America's Great Lakes. They are seaports, connected to the Atlantic Ocean through the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence Seaway.

The area is home to two very long bridges, the Richard I. Bong Memorial Bridge carrying U.S. Highway 2 and the John A. Blatnik Bridge carrying Interstate 535. While their central spans aren't all that large, the overall lengths are very impressive, with each reaching across more than 1.5 miles (2.5 km) of water.

However, when visitors to the area come to see bridges, they pay much more attention to the historic Aerial Lift Bridge that serves as a gateway to the port. It must be raised and lowered whenever ships enter or exit the Duluth side of the harbor, though the natural inlet closer to Superior doesn't have anything over it.

Together, the cities rank as the 19th-busiest port in the country overall (44.2 million short tons [40.1 million metric tons] per year) as of 2002, though the area is the 7th-busiest port (13.8 million short tons [12.5 million metric tons] per year) (when measured on foreign exports alone.

See also

• Twin cities (the generic term)
• Minneapolis-St. Paul (the Twin Cities of Minnesota)

Example Usage of Ports