Twin Ports
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The Twin Ports of Duluth, Minnesota and Superior, Wisconsin are located at the western part of Lake Superior (the westernmost of North America's Great Lakes). They are twin cities and seaports, connected to the Atlantic Ocean through the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence Seaway. There are 275,486 people in the region (2000 census).
The area is home to two very long bridges: the Richard I. Bong Memorial Bridge (carrying U.S. Highway 2) and the John A. Blatnik Bridge (carrying I-535 and U.S. 53). While their central spans are not notably lengthy, the overall lengths are very impressive, with each reaching across more than 1.5 miles (2.5 km) of water.
However, when visitors to the area come to see bridges, they pay much more attention to the historic Aerial Lift Bridge that serves as a gateway to the port. It must be raised and lowered whenever ships enter or exit the Duluth side of the harbor, though the natural inlet closer to Superior doesn't have anything over it.
Together, the cities rank as the 19th-busiest port in the country overall (44.2 million short tons [40.1 million metric tons] per year) as of 2002, though the area is the 7th-busiest port (13.8 million short tons [12.5 million metric tons] per year) when measured on foreign exports alone.
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