Shipbuilding forever changed with the transition from wooden hulls to those built of iron and steel. The first iron-hulled freighter on the Great Lakes, the Onoko, debuted in 1881. At 287 feet long, she was a giant of her day. Just five years later, in 1886, the first steel-hulled vessel arrived on the Great Lakes, the Spokane.
Iron and steel made it possible to build ships of sizes wooden shipbuilders only dreamed of. In 1894, the steel steamer Victory distinguished herself as the first ship over 400 feet in length on the Great Lakes. In 1912, the first 600-footer followed. As ships grew, locks and canals grew with them. By 1958, these expansions allowed for 730-footers like the well-known Edmund Fitzgerald. With the most recent enlargement of the Soo Locks in 1973, the Great Lakes now host vessels reaching incredible lengths of just over 1,000 feet.
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