STURGEON BAY, Wis. (WBAY) - Most of us are familiar with driving over the bridges in Sturgeon Bay on the way to or from Door County. But a lot of what you see as you make that drive has been impacted by a small, man-made sliver of water just to the east.

“I mean, the creation of the canal changed the course of Sturgeon Bay history,” says Sam Perlman, the deputy director and development manager for the Door County Maritime Museum.

In July of 1872, led by the president of the Chicago Northwestern Railroad, construction began on the 1.4-mile-long Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal along the route of what was a portage between Lake Michigan and Sturgeon Bay.

It took 9 years to make it passable for smaller sailing vessels, and another 10 years for larger ships.

“A lot of dynamite, a lot of human power

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