Conneaut Harbor

My favorite harbor: Conneaut, Ohio, as it looked in 1991. This was one of the busiest harbors in the world for much of the twentieth century (it's Lake Erie's nearest port to Pittsburgh), and remains busy enough to be interesting.

All packed into a remarkably small area. The harbor's not very wide, and less than a half mile long.

The black mechanical thingies are Hulett Unloaders--wonderful and improbable contraptions whose mission in life was unloading iron ore from large ships. They'd already been retired when this photo was taken and have since been removed. Self-unloading ships are doubtless more efficient, and are clearly more versatile, but they're far less interesting to watch.