• Source: Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal

The Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal is a ship canal connecting Sturgeon Bay with Lake Michigan across the Door Peninsula in Door County, Wisconsin. A dredged channel continues through Sturgeon Bay to Green Bay. This combined waterway allows ships to sail between Lake Michigan and Green Bay without traversing the dangerous Porte des Morts strait.
The canal is approximately 1.3 miles (2.1 km) long, cutting through the eastern side of the peninsula in a northwest-to-southeast orientation. There are no locks.




History



The Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal was dug by a private group headed by then-president of Chicago and North Western Railway, William B. Ogden, between July 8, 1872 and the late fall of 1881. Although smaller craft began using the canal in 1880, it was not open for large-scale watercraft until 1890. Timber along the canal route was burned to get rid of it instead of being used for wood.
The cost of completing the 1.3-mile (2.1 km) cut in 1881 was $291,461.69.
In 1893, the Ogden private investors group sold all interest in the canal to the United States government. Since that time, the canal has been maintained by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.




Description


The original canal was 100 feet (30 m) wide and 6 feet (1.8 m) deep. As of May 2016, the canal was 125 feet (38 m) wide and 20 feet (6.1 m) deep. Two jetties frame the canal's southeast entrance, each extending about 1,200 feet (370 m) into Lake Michigan.
Several famous lighthouses mark the course of the canal and channel, including the Sturgeon Bay Canal Lighthouse at the eastern entrance on the northern side of the canal (approximately 230 feet (70 m) from Lake Michigan) next to Coast Guard Station Sturgeon Bay; the Sturgeon Bay Canal North Pierhead Light on the Lake Michigan coastline; and the Sherwood Point Lighthouse in Idlewild, on the far western end, on the southern shore of the outer edge of Sturgeon Bay.




Gallery






Notes






External links


Sturgeon Bay Canal North Pierhead Light page
Sturgeon Bay Canal Light page
AmericanCanals.org info
Photo of the workers' quarters and the cleared route for the canal in Images of America: Sturgeon Bay by Ann Jinkins and Maggie Weir, Chicago: Arcadia Publishing, 2006, page 22

Kata Kunci Pencarian:

• Daftar julukan kota di Amerika Serikat
• Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal
• Sturgeon Bay
• Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin
• Sturgeon Bay (town), Wisconsin
• Sturgeon Bay Canal Light
• Bay Shipbuilding Company
• Sturgeon Bay (disambiguation)
• Great Lakes Waterway
• Coast Guard Station Sturgeon Bay
• List of canals in the United States