My mother's Uncle Nick, who worked many years as a city bus driver in Duluth, started his career as an operator for the incline railroad. As a kid, I didn't have the faintest idea what the "incline railroad" was or whatever happened to it.

Amazing shot - No light tower at the end of the pier yet and the lift bridge is not completed in its first form. I'm amazed how many of these buildings are still standing. Thank you for the great shots of the city less than 10 miles from my home.

Each one of these Duluth photos contains an incredible variety of human endeavors, from railroads to ferries to lighthouses to flophouses to cigar factories to Mysterious Ladies In White. Purely wonderful.

How wonderful to see a photo that captures the construction of the first iteration of the bridge linking the City with Minnesota Point, across the ship canal (upper center). The initial version was not the lift span that exists today but rather a rare transporter bridge, with a street-level gondola that moved side-to-side rather than up.

Note the advertising painted on the rock in the foreground, presumably for the benefit of incline railway riders.