The Great Lakes' first thousand-footer, Stewart J. Cort, is photographed here during winter lay-up at Erie during the 1980s. Behind her, fleetmate Burns Harbor can be seen, and behind the Burns Harbor the stacks of the Sparrows Point, Johnstown, and Arthur B. Homer are in view. Photo by my father, Jim Thoreson.

The Cort's midsection was built at Erie, and its bow and stern sections were built in Pascagoula, Mississippi. Nicknamed Stubby, the unit sailed up the St. Lawrence Seaway to Erie, where it was cut apart and welded to the midsection. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the Bethlehem Steel fleet, despite operating mainly on Lake Michigan, would sail to Erie for winter lay-up. By 1989, however, they would stop coming to Erie in favor of laying up at Lake Michigan ports.