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The Stone Arch Bridge

Introduction

Text-to-speech Audio

Can historic structures be adapted for new purposes? And how can new adaptations change a neighborhood? As you walk out on the Stone Arch Bridge today, it’s difficult to imagine it being closed off and not used. But after the last passenger train crossed the bridge in 1978, the bridge remained unused in the 1980s. As you cross the bridge today, notice how people are using the space. What do you think the bridge offers the community today?

Images

Stone Arch Bridge

Stone Arch Bridge

Backstory and Context

Text-to-speech Audio

From the bridge today you can see the water rushing over the falls, and you can turn back towards the west bank to see one of the best views of the Minneapolis skyline (it's a great spot for a photo opp!). The bridge was designed when the riverfront was an industrial neighborhood, filled with railroad tracks and flour mills. It brought passengers into Minneapolis across the Mississippi River. As you walk across the bridge, you can see how the bike path lines suggest the two set of rails that were once on the bridge.

Creating the Stone Arch Bridge

St. Paul railroad magnate James J. Hill commissioned the bridge to give passenger train access to downtown Minneapolis across the Mississippi River. Engineer Charles C. Smith designed the bridge with a distinctive curve not for aesthetics, but to accommodate the pre-existing buildings in the flour milling district and the natural landscape, including the waterfall and the riverbed stone.

Between 1881-83, workers spent twenty-two months building the bridge, using ropes and pulleys to lay the stone. As with many construction projects during the Industrial Revolution, worker safety was not guaranteed. Three workers lost their lives during the building of the bridge. 

Finding a new purpose for the Stone Arch Bridge

The last passenger train crossed the bridge in 1978. It wasn't inevitable that the bridge would be transformed for pedestrians and cyclists. In the 1980s the riverfront neighborhood wasn't the recreational destination that it is today. And although affordable housing advocates pushed to create homes along the riverfront, their proposals weren't supported.Some civic leaders imagined using the bridge for a light rail.

In 1992, the State of Minnesota acquired the bridge and workers spent two years transforming it for use by pedestrians and cyclists. The St. Anthony Falls Heritage Board supported the creation of the St.Anthony Falls Heritage Trail connecting the two banks of the river.

Sources

Millett, Larry. AIA Guide to the Twin Cities. St. Paul, MN. Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2007.

Pennefeather, Shannon M.. Mill City: A Visual History of the Minneapolis Mill District. St. Paul, MN. Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2003.

Weber, Tom. Minneapolis: An Urban Biography. St. Paul, MN. Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2020.

Image Sources(Click to expand)

PC: David Berg

Additional Information