Highway 61 Bridge, Minnesota

A few hundred yards east of the visitor center at Grand Portage State Park, the international boundary with Canada passes through the middle of the Highway 61 bridge, the first physical obstruction along the border line since the bridge at Sault Ste. Marie, 300 miles away. This is a brief landfall, as it is another 300 miles further west down the line to the next bridge over the boundary, in International Falls. This stretch of the boundary, starting at the Pigeon River, meanders wildly through stream beds waterfalls, rapids, lakes and bogs, for 300 miles, while covering a distance of 175 miles, as the crow flies. The border is defined through the region by 1,562 recorded turning points, and 1,100 reference markers installed along the way. Much of this is the Boundary Waters, one of the great wildernesses of the United States.