Since 1861, when Captain George G. Meade first surveyed the Duluth-Superior Harbor, the Twin Ports have become world leaders in Great Lakes and ocean trade. Development of the harbor’s piers, breakwaters, and navigation channels by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from the shallow 12-foot depths of 1873 kept pace with the increasing water transportation needs of an expanding agricultural-industrial inland complex. The Corps of Engineers deepened the Duluth-Superior Harbor to a 27-foot depth in 1962-3. These improvements permit modern lake and ocean-going vessels to ply these waters and help make the Great Lakes one of the world’s great deep-draft inland waterway systems.
