Ore dock

For the microbrewery, see Ore Dock Brewing Company.
Laker at dock in Duluth, Minnesota showing scale
The Wisconsin Central Railway (later Soo Line) ore dock in Ashland, Wisconsin 1,800 ft (550 m) long, b. 1916
Ore dock (b. 1931) in Marquette, Michigan
The IR&HB ore dock at Skanee, Michigan. The steamer Christopher Columbus (362 ft) is in the foreground. ca. 1893

An ore dock is a large structure used for loading ore (typically from railway cars or ore jennies) onto ships, which then carry the ore to steelworks or to transshipment points. Most known ore docks were constructed near iron mines on the upper Great Lakes and served the lower Great Lakes. Ore docks still in existence are typically about 60 feet (18 m) wide, 80 feet (24 m) high, and vary from 900 feet (270 m) to 2,400 feet (730 m) in length. They are commonly constructed from wood, steel, reinforced concrete, or combinations of these materials.[1]

They are commonly used for loading bulk ore carriers with high mass, low-value ore, such as iron ore, in raw or taconite form.

  1. ^ Cooleybeck, Patrick — Moshe Safdie & Associates, Somerville, MA. "Iron ore docks of the Great Lakes". ABSTRACTS from Paper Sessions of the SIA Annual Conference held on June 3, 2000 in Duluth, MN. Retrieved 2008-01-25.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)