St. Clair River Ship Traffic - Port Huron, Michigan, USA

At Port Huron, Michigan, giant ships slide past almost close enough to touch, as the St. Clair River carries Lake Huron south through a narrow channel.

Canada is just across the water in Sarnia, Ontario, and the Blue Water Bridge links the two countries nearby. Long lake freighters loaded with iron ore, coal, stone and grain pass by day and night, along with tankers, tugs and the odd sailboat.

The current is so fast here that you can see it swirl around their hulls. The shipping season usually runs from late March to mid-January, so winter brings a quieter river.

Did You Know? The biggest Great Lakes freighters are about 1,000 feet long, longer than three football fields. They’re too big to fit through the locks to the Atlantic, so they spend their whole working lives on the lakes.

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