Duluth, Minnesota at the western end of the Saint Lawrence Seaway, the Duluth–Superior seaport is the largest and farthest-inland freshwater seaport in North America. By far the largest and busiest on the Great Lakes, the port handles an average of 46 million short tons of cargo and over 1,100 visits each year from domestic and international vessels. With of waterfront, it is one of the leading bulk cargo ports in North America and ranks among the top 20 ports in the United States. Duluth is a major shipping port for taconite pellets, made from concentrated low-grade iron ore and destined for midwestern
Iron mining in the United States large size of the Lake Superior deposits, and the access to cheap Great Lakes water transportation, enabled iron mining on a massive scale, located far from the iron furnaces. The Lake Superior iron ores, however, are located far from coal deposits, and the greater tonnage of coal required in steelmaking favored the location of furnaces closer to the coal mines. Favorable locations for steelworks using Lake Superior ore included Great Lakes ports such as Chicago, Cleveland, and Gary, as well as cities close to coal and with good water transportation, such as Pittsburgh. Although Lake Superior provides cheap shipping most