World’s Toughest Boat Trips | The Great Lakes, USA | Free Documentary

You might think I'm in the middle of the ocean, but I'm not. I'm in the Great Lakes, the largest reservoir of fresh water on the planet. I am surrounded by six trillion gallons of water and they cover almost 100,000 square miles. These

lakes

are huge and not only are they beautiful: you're looking at one of the

world

's most important trade routes that moves 160 million tonnes of cargo every year and keeps us and the

world

's economies afloat, and the ships aren't much more tougher than this. One of the Great Lakes of North America is a series of interconnected

lakes

bordered by Canada to the north and the United States to the south.

The lake basin is home to 34 million people and contains 21% of the world's fresh water. My journey begins at the Detroit River. from there I head to the OTA to learn about the Michigan lumber trade before traveling up the rugged shoreline of Lake Hiron after crossing the MAA Bridge to the north of the peninsula. I dive into the murky depths of the shipwreck coast for the final part of my journey. To detour from the town where I crossed Lake Superior to Duth, I will take aboard the largest freighter on the lakes, a 1.4-foot monster, the Paul R tra, for more than 12,000 years people have traveled the

great

lakes . and everything from Native American canoes to wooden sail

boat

s and now steel freighters.

Thousands of ships have made millions of

trips

. The last 150 years have been particularly explosive and the lakes are among the busiest waterways in the world. Now Detroit might not be the first place he arrives. This comes to mind when you think of the Great Lakes, but it was founded here on the river for a reason due to its proximity to a larger, more important water system. A system that was as important 300 years ago as it is today, founded in 1701 by a Frenchman. Fur trader Detroit had access to lumber, iron or cheap shipping routes and quickly became an industrial center.

Detroit was booming in the '19s and '20s, there was a lot of money and people wanted to spend it, so they weren't very happy when a series of changes were made to the Michigan Constitution, declaring that consumption, distribution and production of alcohol were illegal. This marked the beginning of Prohibition in 1917, it was in full effect and created what would become Detroit's second largest bootlegging industry. I'm going to meet Bailey siso. escro to learn more about this underground and sometimes underwater rum trade, why prohibition really came about led by many women's groups the biggest proponents of prohibition were actually women, the Coldwater Army, which was the group of women who had the uh, lips that touch liquor will never touch mine protest signs, were a lot of fun at parties. um, these women started to think that alcohol was the double drink.

Then finally, through a long line of protests, they managed to make alcohol illegal in the United States, so we are on our way. The Detroit River right now between Canada and on this side the city of Detroit and this was a breeding ground for illegal alcohol smuggling during the prohibition years. Just because the river is an international border, Detroit sometimes forgets that Canada is another country and as such. has separate laws, so when prohibition went into effect in Detroit, alcohol was still flowing fairly

free

ly in Canada and the Detroit River is less than a mile wide at certain points, so it was actually a very easy way to bring alcohol. we're talking tons and tons and tons of boos when they opened the Detroit tunnel, they nicknamed it the Detroit funnel, so by some estimates a huge amount of moonshine can go through it, 75% of all the moonshine that It entered the entire United States during the years of Prohibition.

It really came through Detroit and went to the other side of this waterway, so it's like rafting in the dead of night like Tom Sawyer, it was a little bit of everything they would have. women enjoying kayak and canoe rides across the river and sneaking back four or five bottles, okay, so all the ladies weren't these Temperance ladies, no, some of the ladies were the type you want at your parties, you had major gangs like the Purple Gang, we're talking about the mafia, okay, they were backed by Capone and they brought. thousands of men across the country and here in Detroit, dozens of men were being killed and the government finally said we couldn't let this go on so when prohibition was lifted across the country there were parties but there really weren't much more liquor than before.

Smugglers might have been plying these waters, but for the past 150 years there has been another type of delivery on the stretch of the Detroit River. May delivery. The JW Westcot company is the world's only floating rack railway. code delivering mail to passing ships, let's get you ready here, okay, let it go, it's not a bad day at the office, it's not a bad day, this has been going on for about 150 years. John Ward Wescott founded this company in 1874 doing what Actually, we are doing it today with a robbery at that time, but basically the same concept is done today, just as it was done back then, they won't stop for you, oh no , oh no, we basically have to match their speeds before moving forward and then. just take it to alignment time a little shot this is how you go this is the only way ships like this can receive any mail that's all for the next leg I stay on dry land going 350M east coast of the Southern Peninsula Route 23 is supposed to be beautiful Michigan has 3,200 miles of spectacular lake shores easy to explore by

boat

or by land leaving Detroit my first stop will be a scoda the heart of one of Michigan's largest industries Lumber embracing the beautiful sunrise Coast Route 23 then takes me to the Maag bridge in the north of the Peninsula.

It's been like this for hours, like you're on one side and these endless green forests on the other and there's a ton of it, there's actually 30,000 square miles of forest in Michigan which is half the state these majestic forests have been logged for centuries It was in the 19th century, however, the lumber industry really flourished by 1880 Michigan was producing as much lumber as the next three states combined. I'm meeting with local historian Rob Berg to learn more about Michigan's Timber, it looks like Asota is kind of a Mecca for the timber industry. Well, this was one of the really important areas, located right on Lake Hon and with the river coming down to it, it became kind of a perfect location for cutting logs and sending them to the sawmills.

So who are these guys? This shows three of the important jobs. Who is the guy in the middle? It looks like he has an iPhone. It has a compass. He is the one who looks at the earth. Timber. Cruiser and he is the man who went out and looked for the trees they were going to cut, the man on the right, Sawyer, was what today we would call The Woodcutter and he would be cutting the trees from sunup to sundown and then the man On the left side is the river conductor. They sometimes call it the river hog or the river rat and they are the ones who shipped the logs and floated them down the river to the sawmills.

Those men were the ones who converted. mythical loggers because it was based on skill and, where appropriate, danger: logs floated down the river, sometimes getting stuck together, and river drivers had to fix or clear them. and they would take a tool like this one here, called a pole, and it would be used to push the logs with the point or with the hook, but did it really get that bad? I mean, this is like this nightmare van. Stick game here, yes this could kill you, could you have to worry about not hitting the wrong log at the wrong time and having it fall on top of you and if you fall between them they can close on top of you?

Yes, they attacked you, you probably had a very low chance of having your ribs broken and your lungs crushed, so they would hang your River boots as a marker of where your body is and then recover it for burial in 1897, 160 billion. Board feet had been cut from the Michigan forest, generating more money and more millionaires than the California gold rush. This is a fantastic place, it's beautiful, so the Great Lakes were the driving force behind all of this. How they carry the logs to the water in spring. All the snow and ice had melted All the rivers run fast and deep That's when you float the logs to the sawmill Where was this wood going? a lot even here on this side of Michigan went to Chicago uh Chicago burned down in the fire in 1871 it was Michigan lumber that rebuilt Chicago and Chicago was also the shipping point for lumber to go to the Prairie States so it was a big business back then it was our biggest business $110 billion in today's money $4 billion in the 19th century far more than anything else that came out of Michigan and one of America's lucrative industries in the early 20th century , Michigan was almost completely deforested, the lush forest that once dominated the state disappeared leaving a wounded and scarred landscape, recognizing desperate need.

For Conservation Michigan established a forestry commission to protect, preserve and restore its forests and today there are more than 19 million acres and 14 billion trees that have just emerged on the Mao Bridge, an amazing engineering feat of the last century , it has a mile long suspension bridge and at the time it was built as the longest in the world and now crossing it is supposed to be quite intimidating, so I'm going to meet someone who will give me some advice, Todd, hey, I'm Holly, Hi Holly, nice to meet you. Nice to meet you, Todd. What are you doing for the bridge here?

My job title is Stele Jack, so you're going up and down the bridge, fixing it and maintaining it. Yes, now I hear people approaching the bridge and they sort of get scared and need help. Cross it, it's that true. Yes. around four to six people per day need driver assistance, we have to drive their vehicles across the bridge, yes, why are people afraid to cross the bridge? Probably due to the height. I guess how high the road is, about 210 feet, are there ever people? it's like getting halfway and freaking out and stopping that happens yeah I had a lady where I was she ended up in the back seat of her car just curled up in the fetal position with a jacket over her head and she was It wasn't good overall .

I'm not. I don't have a problem with Crossing Bridges, but you brought me here and it's a windy day, so you want to take me to the other side. Absolutely fine, wait a second, Hyo, thank you. thanks B someone needs to be crossed right now to go south okay, let's help, okay,

great

, here we go, here we go, don't worry, this is where the suspension bridge begins. Yeah, it's not that bad yet. Don't feel the wind, you can feel it when we go out to the center. Span gyob Fear of Bridges and Acrophobia Fear of heights is extremely common for some people, the simple act of crossing a bridge can cause them to completely shut down. year, the driver assistance program at Max a Bridge escorts about 1,200 people safely driving them through Ok, where's our driver in need?

Hello, are you waiting to be taken to the other side? Ok, alright, Todd to the rescue, what's your dog's name? Dave Harvard, it's beautiful and you signed it. a release to give Todd permission to cross basically if we fall in it's not ours it's not our problem so how come you didn't want to cross the bridge? I just don't know why I'm just afraid of heights. One thing I think is a little bit of that. I'm not exactly sure what it is. I got nervous and thought I won't do it, I don't want to wait and I'm causing some problem.

I just don't mind going through heights like this and I'm not good with about 6 feet lighter than that. I get a little nervous here in the middle, oh yeah, so these guys are up there working on this thing walking around like it's nothing, they go oh wow, yeah, Todd is hanging off the bottom of this bridge, painting it and fixing things oh wow Co , better than him, probably okay, thanks guys, everyone, it was a pleasure meeting you all, good luck on your travels, thank you, thank you, thank you. Yes, he drives carefully, mission accomplished. Dave and Harvard are back on the road.

How tall is the tower? 552 feet. Wow, would you like to go up there? Yes, it is very windy here. Absolutely good. Holy mackerel it wasn't so bad in the car, but up here. It's a little bit more um heidy, let's say that's a nice way to put it, this is the elevator, so what do you think you want to do with this? I think you go first, although that's okay, so you want to duck your head underneath. like putting your leg first, okay, we're talking about Heights here, you didn't have claustrophobia. Sorry, it's very intimate here, well, let's go to the top, but you have to leave the door clear, okay, because that has to be able to do it. close, okay, okay and here we go, is this ever stuck?

No, never, not on my watch, it's okay, you fix ityeah, you hold it here and then you throw it into the boats and they go away, yeah, that's a lot of boats. coal a lot of busy times in the industry while renewable energy sources are paving the way for the future 33% of the US is still powered by coal and at Midwest Energy they have the capacity to store 5 million tons I thought on my boat trip The Great Lakes would be about water and coal, but in every step and on every boat the story of difficult physical lives is told, of camaraderie, loyalty, community and loss.

The history of the Great Lakes is a history of trade, but at the center of it all they are. its solid and proud people