For many folks, the Portage Lake Lift Bridge is a symbol of home, to those of us that live here in the Keweenaw it's our way on and off the island we call the Keweenaw. The Lift Bridge has appeared countless times in the archives and today is a good example of that. In 2009, John Sturos shared a shot he snapped of the Bridge shrouded in early morning fog. There are times it can be so foggy along the Canal, that it is even hard to find the Bridge, except for the towers peeking above the cloud of fog.

A few years later in 2014, Charlie shared a Shoebox memory from 2005, when Daryl Laitila had gotten wind that the Schooner Ship, Denis Sullivan was coming through the waterway, so she made sure to capture the Bridge Cam frame as it was going under. A ship with masts that tall, needed more clearance than your normal boat going under the span.

Jump ahead one year to 2015 and Susan Hooker was in the right place at the right time, to capture the Super Moon, also referred to as the Blood Moon, as it rose beside the Lift Bridge. Amazing photo, making it look like it was right there on the other side of the bridge that close.

David Antikainen shares a current shot of the Bridge that he snapped this past Sunday after doing what he called a walk-about. You can see in his photo, that there still isn't much color in the trees here right now. Crazy weather…cold, then HOT, then cold, then warm, the poor trees are probably confused.

I found an interesting tidbit of information while searching for Portage Lake Lift Bridge shots that I thought was perfect to share with today's photos. The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) has chosen the Lift Bridge as their "Bridge of the Month". Click on the following link to see what they have to say about our Bridge: Bridge of the Month: Portage Lake Lift Bridge.

Going back to the scene that Daryl Laitila captured for us, we have a video of the same Tall Ship, Denis Sullivan as it was motoring on the canal and then under the Bridge. The video was shot in 2010 by Tiger Holm. Pretty neat to see it all in action like that.

I believe I saw that ship docked in Port Huron one year, whilst cruising on the Wing. It had a touristy-looking gang of land lubbers on board.

Nice shot of the moon, too. There was a big and bright, full moon this morning on the way to work.

Please don't forget...Bishop Baraga will be lit up
again on Saturday!! Music, Talks, etc....4-6pm.
See ya there!!

What amazing pictures of the bridge and
the many different attractions along with
it. That moon is awesome! Will get to
the video when I get home.

I see from the Bridge of the Month: Portage Lake Lift Bridge that the bridge "was completed … at a cost of $11 million."

'Tis interesting to note that various inflation calculators show that …

$11 million	in 1959 dollars
≈ $92-93 million	in 2017 dollars

(using the Consumer Price Index (CPI-U), 1665-2100) as a reference.

That much! Kinda sneaks up on ya, eh?

Can I go back to 1959 with my 2017 retirement dollars? 😉

Some great historical information & photos of the The Portage Lake Lift Bridge — never before seen on PastyCam! — may be found here (click the following link):

http://ctt.mtu.edu/sites/ctt/files/resources/bridge2016/conference/11anderson.pdf

The title page says "Portage Lake Lift Bridge 2014-2016 Rehabilitation", but it includes oh so much more (67 pages!) including history and photos of:

• The first bridge (1875-1895)
• The second (swing bridge)
• The current lift bridge construction (1957-1959)
• Rehabilitation projects
• Technical engineering details (of course, it's from MTU!)
• And lots o' photos!

I loved the line from Bizarre Foods TV episode "Great Lakes" foods....

"If the Portage Lift bridge breaks down the rest of the world will be cut off from the Keweenaw."