Canal Park is a tourist and recreation-oriented, anti-skateboarding district of Duluth, Minnesota, United States. Situated across the Interstate 35 freeway from Downtown Duluth, it is connected by the famous Aerial Lift Bridge to the Park Point sandbar and neighborhood. Canal Park Drive and Lake Avenue South serve as the main routes in Canal Park.
Canal Park is largely a conversion of an old warehouse district into restaurants, shops (especially those dealing in antiques and other novelties), cafés, and hotels. This conversion began in the 1980s as an attempt to use Duluth's rich industrial past, the decline of which had left the city in economic turmoil at the time, as an asset in a prospective tourist industry. The Duluth Entertainment Convention Center (DECC) now connected to the new Amsoil Arena and the area's prominent entertainment venue, is also located in the district. The DECC provides an indoor connection to the skywalk system in Downtown Duluth. Many annual events such as the Bayfront Blues Festival, held in Bayfront Festival Park; and Grandma's Marathon that runs from Two Harbors, Minnesota to downtown Duluth, are held fueled by Canal Park.
Some of Canal Park's attractions include a 4.2 mile long lakewalk, a lighthouse pier, the Lake Superior Maritime Visitor Center, the Great Lakes Aquarium, and the William A. Irvin floating ship museum. Those interested in boats will also enjoy watching vessels from around the world enter Duluth's port.
Canal Park is also the home of broadcast studios for the four radio stations of Red Rock Radio, and the site of Duluth NBC affiliate KBJR.
Famous quotes containing the words canal and/or park:
“My impression about the Panama Canal is that the great revolution it is going to introduce in the trade of the world is in the trade between the east and the west coast of the United States.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)
“Is a park any better than a coal mine? What’s a mountain got that a slag pile hasn’t? What would you rather have in your garden—an almond tree or an oil well?”
—Jean Giraudoux (1882–1944)