Great Lakes Waterway River between Huron and Erie. Usually, one or more U.S. Coast Guard icebreakers help keep the water passage open for part of the fall and early winter, although shipping usually ceases for two to three months thereafter. The Great Lakes Waterway is co-administered by the governments of Canada and the United States of America. The waterway allows passage from the Atlantic Ocean to the inland port of Duluth on Lake Superior, a distance of and to Chicago, on Lake Michigan, at . Together with the Saint Lawrence Seaway, the Waterway allows both ocean-going vessels and the ore, grain and coal-bearing
Transportation in Minnesota rivers. Commercial water transportation now is limited to the shipment of bulk commodities on two routes. Barges haul grain and other products down the Mississippi River system from the ports of Minneapolis (the head of navigation), St. Paul, Red Wing and Winona on the Mississippi, and Savage (on the Minnesota River), to downstream river ports, and to ports on the Gulf of Mexico for transshipment to ocean-going cargo ships. Cargo vessels known as lakers haul grain, coal, and iron ore from the Lake Superior ports of Duluth, Superior, Two Harbors, and Silver Bay, through Lake Superior to the lower Great