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In 1913, the 16th Amendment was passed and Woodrow Wilson became president.

But tragedy also struck the Great Lakes.

Here's our own Monty Montgomery with more on that event.

In 1679, the Great Lakes were changed forever for the first time as LaSalle's

Griffin departed from port, becoming the first ship to ever sail on the Great Lakes.

And in 1841, the lakes were yet again changed when the Vendaliyas set sail, the first

propeller-driven ship to do so. An industry took off, and by 1913, the Great

Lakes had become a major in still developing transportation hub. Here's Rick Mixter of Lake Fury

with more on that. In 1913, we're talking about a mix of different types of transportation on the lakes.

The sail was still somewhat viable.

Most of those old sailing vessels, the schooners had been turned into barges

and were being towed by the more efficient steamers that didn't have to wait for the winds to be correct.

But there were no highways at that time. So everything had to be

moved, especially these amazing commodities we have on the Great Lakes, coal, iron ore, grain. All of

this stuff was moved in huge amounts, bulk amounts on these freighters and barges. You know,

there were literally thousands of ships on the Great Lakes, hundreds that were regularly being used, many that were also laid up.

It would go by the flow of how much iron ore needed to be moved or later in the season as you got the grain cargoes coming in, the coal that had to be stocked up for the wintertime.

So you'd see more ships come out, and many of those ships

weren't in perfect condition. They were whatever could float, they could get these

cargoes in before the lakes froze up, and then all that commerce stopped. There weren't a lot

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