The Saint Mary's River runs from Lake Superior to Lake Huron, between what are now the twin border cities on either side. No hyphens are used in the English spelling, which is otherwise identical to the French, but the pronunciations differ. Anglophones say and Francophones say . In French, the name can be written "Sault-Sainte-Marie". On both sides of the border, the towns and the general vicinity are called The Sault (usually pronounced ), or The Soo. The two cities are joined by the International Bridge, which connects Interstate 75 (I-75) in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, and Huron Street in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. Shipping traffic in the Great Lakes system bypasses the rapids via the American Soo Locks, which locally is often claimed to be the world's busiest canal in terms of tonnage passing through it. The largest ships are long by wide. These are domestic carriers (called "lakers"). Smaller recreational and tour boats use the Canadian Sault Ste. Marie Canal. The lakers, being too large to transit the Welland Canal that bypasses Niagara Falls, are therefore land-locked. Foreign ships (termed "salties") are smaller and can exit the Great Lakes to the St. Lawrence River and the Atlantic Ocean. Sault Ste. Marie is the home of the International 500 Snowmobile Race (commonly called the I-500), which takes place annually and draws participants and spectators from all over the U.S. and Canada. The race, which was inspired by the Indianapolis 500, originated in 1969 and has been growing ever since. For centuries Ojibwe (Chippewa) Native Americans had lived in the area, which they referred to as "Baawitigong" ("at the cascading rapids"), after the rapids of St. Marys River. French colonists renamed the region Saulteaux ("rapids" in French). In 1668, French missionaries Claude Dablon and Jacques Marquette founded a Jesuit mission at this site. Sault Ste. Marie developed as the fourth-oldest European city in the United States west of the Appalachian Mountains, and the oldest permanent settlement in contemporary Michigan state. On June 4, 1671, Simon-François Daumont de Saint-Lusson, a colonial agent, was dispatched from Quebec to the distant tribes, proposing a congress of Indian nations at the Falls of St. Mary between Lake Huron and Lake Superior.