Dobbins Landing

Presque Isle Bay and the peninsula that protects it were created by the last glacier and drew native Americans and the first Europeans to the area. Rufus Reed built wharfs along the Erie bay front in 1807, and since its construction in 1815, the pier has connected people and goods traveling across Presque Isle Bay, on the Great Lakes, and to the interior U.S. In 1833 the city extended State Street into Presque Isle Bay and created east and west slips, and in 1843 Erie's Extension Canal opened, linking the city to the Allegheny River and Pittsburgh while using the East Basin as a staging, loading, and canal origin point. The USS Michigan, later Wolverine, was assembled in Erie in 1844 and stationed in the East Basin as a U.S. naval and reserve ship until 1923. In 1909 the City of Erie took possession of the State Street dock and built the public steamboat landing at its northern end, a structure still visible today, and in 1926 the Nicholson Ferry to Port Dover began operating from the public dock until 1931. The dock was renamed Dobbins Landing in 1986 in honor of pioneer mariner Captain Daniel Dobbins, who sailed the Great Lakes for more than 40 years and was instrumental in building Perry's fleet in 1812-1813, and the Bicentennial Tower was built there in 1995 for Erie's 200th anniversary.

Erie, Pennsylvania · United States