Overview of the large coal and iron ore transshipment harbor and facility at Ashtabula, Ohio on the south shore of Lake Erie. The breakwater can be seen in the distance with the old lighthouse on the west end and its replacement on the east breakwater. A large conveyor system is relatively new to move coal from the railroad trains to a large storage area where it will be loaded onto ships. In the distance are piles of taconite, processed low grade iron ore, which have been transported by ship from northern Minnesota. The large white building in the lower right is the former U.S. Coast Guard station now used by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.

A hundred years ago this view would have been much different with a huge complex of loading and unloading docks and a steel mill or two mixed in.