“Detroit Waterway Traffic Growing” in The Monroe Evening News (May 5th, 1923)

May 5, 2025

Today’s article, from The Monroe Evening News, celebrates the Detroit River’s emergence as one of the two most heavily used waterway for freight shipping in the country. With the construction of new ports and harbors, coupled with the millions of tons of freight passing through the river and Lake St. Clair each year, the article proposes that Michigan will soon become a ‘maritime empire.’

While the river has served as an important commercial shipping lane since the early 19th century, its global ranking may have peaked in 1907, when the tonnage passing through Detroit exceeded London and New York combined. The current annual tonnage is approximately 65 to 70 million, consisting largely of iron ore, coal, limestone, and other raw materials.

Transcript:

Detroit, May 5–(A. P.)– More commerce passes every years thru Detroit river with one exception, than through or into any other waterway or port in the United States, either on the seacoasts or inland lakes, according to the annual report of the governor’s chief engineer.

In 1921, admittedly one of the most disastrous business years in the history of lake shipping, a total of 63,973,308 tons of freight passed through Detroit river. In the same year 57,523,481 tons of freight passed through the channels in Lake St. Clair. In spite of the fact that the navigation season in this part of the country is only about seven months long, and that ocean shipping goes on 12 months in the year, the total commerce tonnage handled in all the waterways around New York including the Newark, N.J. bay, was 139,755,516, and in Boston the report showed only 9,752,841 tons. Much of the Detroit River traffic, of course, constitutes ore shipments from the northern peninsula that pass this city.

On the Great Lakes, the Duluth-Superior ranks second to Detroit, and Lake St. Clair as 30,083,555 tons of commerce were recorded there in 1921. Chicago was shown to be of little relative importance as a lake port, but 2,632,343 tons being recorded. Other lake harbor figures include: Milwaukee, 6,431,147; Toledo 9,202,109; Cleveland, 6200,362; Ashtabula, 6,401,667; Corneaut, Ohio, 7,800,000. Ludington, Mich., is shown to have been well up among the harbors on the lakes a total of 1,830,263 tons having been handled.

Not only does Detroit river lead all other waterways and ports of the country, with exception of the aggregate in the New York metropolitan district but the aggregate tonnage of Michigan ports for 1921 proved to be several times as great as the aggregate for any other state in the lake region. Shipping men and others interested in development of water routes point out that with proper development of waterway and harbor facilities the Wolverine state should become a maritime empire whose influence in this respect should be felt throughout the entire country. Under the amendment to the constitution, adopted at the last state-wide election which permits formation of port districts, the development of harbors and ports is expected to begin in earnest in Michigan within the next few years.

In connection with the tonnage report for the various ports and waterways local vesselmen say it is interesting to note that only $10,000 is asked from the federal government for maintaining the Detroit River during the fiscal year beginning next July. The amount asked for the New York waterways is $205,000.