Another old photo today. This one dates to 1928, again from the Detroit News or Detroit Times archives.
The caption on the back of this one reads as follows:
Taken from Str. Cadillac
A neat view of the old ferry bashing its way through the ice.
Interesting to see the backside of the Windsor Ferry Docks. Most of the pictures or photos of it show the land side.
Have a good weekend everyone, see you back here Monday.
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Who says that global warming is not real? The river used to freeze over right up into the early sixties.
The dredged-depth of the river, the heat from riverside factories and pollution all contribute to the river not freezing as it used to. The amount of ice is always striking in these old photos, perhaps especially in photos of people driving across in their Model T's (with rum in under the seats). The ferries didn't try to run all year, did they?
I agree that it is nice to see the docks from the water. An unusual vantage point.
If you type in Windsor Detroit ferry baots, an article by Marty Gervais from Mar. 23/07, deals with the boats. Some of his imformation is from Neil Morrisons book Garden Gateway yo Canada, printed in the 1950s, lots of good imformation.
Global warming sure is real. It's the manmade part of it that is questionable at best. ;-) They used to grow grapes in northern England in the 1500s. Don't think you'd have much luck with that now... but that's for another forum.
agreed Chris! the world does what the world does.
Andrew this is a great shot of the LaSalle and the dock! thanks!
Kathryn - i'm almost positive they ran all year, for a long time they were the only way back and forth. I've heard of times when the ferry would be out in the middle of the river for hours and hours...stuck. then, the people would just get off and walk the rest of the way!
plus with the rail ferries going back and forth all day they made a nice little space of "thinner" ice between Ouellette and Woodward. If those beasts wern't in the river with the passenger ferries I doubt they would have had regular service in the winter.
the new shipping channel depth i'm sure is the main reason for such little ice, as you said. but they were dumping some incredibly nasty stuff straight into the river back when this photo was taken, i can't see how "our" pollution would be a major contributer to the river ice. it's probly half of their output.
Some ecerpts from the Windsor Star story,in 1920 15000 people from Windsor worked in Detroit,proof the ferrys ran all year. Sunday July 7, 1920 20000 cars and 100000 people crossed the river.Three weeks later the line up to Detroit steched for miles, the ferries had to run all night.
Those stories from the twenties where repeated with trafic tiesups on highway 3 from Drtoit to Leamington in the morning and back to Detroit at night on Sundays.Seaclif Park and Point Pelee where jammed.
Some ecerpts from the Windsor Star story,in 1920 15000 people from Windsor worked in Detroit,proof the ferrys ran all year. Sunday July 7, 1920 20000 cars and 100000 people crossed the river.Three weeks later the line up to Detroit steched for miles, the ferries had to run all night.
Those stories from the twenties where repeated with trafic tiesups on highway 3 from Drtoit to Leamington in the morning and back to Detroit at night on Sundays.Seaclif Park and Point Pelee where jammed.