There is nothing quite as annoying as the overenthusiastic zeal that comes with the recently discovered — especially when it has been commonly known and readily accessible for years and years. So I apologize in advance, but, OHMYGOSH, YOU GUYS! HAVE YOU SEEN THE SOO LOCKS?! THEY ARE AWESOMINGLY AMAZING!!!
Last month, I finally made my first visit to Sault Ste Marie to see the Soo Locks. You just can’t fit the scale of a freighter being transferred from one great lake to another in your head until you actually see it. It’s absolutely magnificent. And the tour is even better. A ferry takes you through the locks — up from the American side and down on the Canadian.
It was all so very impressive, but there was one fact that made a particular impression on me. It’s free. That’s right, free. I had no idea. Whether you’re a freighter fully laden with taconite and heading for the steel mills or a pleasure boat on you’re way to Pictured Rocks, you pay nothing. All of us taxpayers foot the bill. And it makes a lot of sense. For the sake of commerce and industry, to promote transportation, to eliminate overhead costs of collecting fees, it’s free to the actual users.
Look, it’s no secret that traditional public transportation is lacking in Michigan, especially Metro Detroit. And I’m not trying to make a direct parallel between a commuter bus/light-rail system and the Soo Locks. But I am saying that they share a common benefit: they are good for business. Yes, it takes some capital investment, but there can be a much greater return on that value. And isn’t that how business is supposed to work? We have underfunded our roads for years, and see where that has gotten us.
John Auchter draws cartoons. Lots and lots of them. You can find them at his incredibly popular website auchtoon.com.
Agree. The “locks” are awesome. Public transportation would also be awesome everywhere.
Now that I’m an old person, I’d love to be able to catch a bus to go somewhere. Not where I live.
We have Your Ride, which you have to schedule way ahead of time. Bah! I want to go today, not tomorrow or Monday.
I visited the Soo Locks in the late ’80s, they are impressive but we didn’t take the tour as we were worn out from visiting Fort Michilimackinac, Mackinac Island and Tahquamenon Falls. Sault Ste Marie was our resting point as cousins own motels there, might as well rent rooms from family and gambling at Kewadin there was also on the agenda which was relaxing.
I forgot the Soo Locks were free, I’m of separate minds about who should pay for public transportation and roads. I don’t mind subsidizing buses and light rail but since I only drive about 3,000 miles a year I’d prefer we raised gas taxes for road funding but you raise an interesting point about the commercial aspect. Almost all of our goods and services come by truck at some point, if we raise the cost of shipping by road we’re going to pay more for almost everything.
Went there years ago with my father and yes it was amazing. Remember when we had to take the ferry across the straits. My father took us across the bridge in the fifties when I was five. Great memories.
I remember the drawbridge over the Saginaw River but the Mackinac Bridge was built slightly before I was born. I-75 was supposed to go thru Flint but had to go around as it took until 1981 for eminent domain to build I-475 all the way thru the city.
If not for public funding we’d have never completed those bridges or roads we all take for granted today.