00:00Music
00:09You might think I'm in the middle of the ocean, but I'm not.
00:12I'm on the Great Lakes, the largest reservoir of fresh water on the planet.
00:16I'm surrounded by six quadrillion gallons of water,
00:20and they cover almost 100,000 square miles.
00:23These lakes are huge.
00:26Music
00:27And they're not just beautiful.
00:29You are looking at one of the most important trade routes in the world,
00:33moving 160 million tons of cargo every year,
00:36and keeping U.S. and world economies afloat.
00:39Music
00:41And boats don't get much tougher than this one.
00:46The Great Lakes of North America are a series of interconnected lakes
00:50bordering Canada in the north and the United States in the south.
00:53The lake basin is home to 34 million people and contains 21% of the world's fresh water.
01:01My journey starts on the Detroit River.
01:03From there, I head to Oscoda to learn about Michigan's lumber trade,
01:07before traveling up the rugged coast of Lake Huron.
01:11After crossing Mackinac Bridge to the northern peninsula,
01:14I take a plunge into the murky depths of the shipwrecked coast.
01:19For the final part of my journey, I head to Detour Village,
01:22where I set off across Lake Superior to Duluth.
01:27I'll be hitching a ride on board the largest cargo ship on the lakes,
01:31a 1,014-foot monster, the Paul R. Tragertha.
01:37Day 2
01:37Day 3
01:38Day 3
01:38Day 4
01:40Day 4
01:40Day 5
01:41Day 6
01:42Day 5
01:43Day 4
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