Merriam Street Bridge

Last updated
Merriam Street Bridge
MerriamStBridge.jpg
Coordinates 44°59′09″N93°15′34″W / 44.9859°N 93.2594°W / 44.9859; -93.2594
CarriesTwo lanes of Merriam Street
CrossesEast channel of the Mississippi River
Locale Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota
Maintained byCity of Minneapolis
ID number 27664
Characteristics
Design Truss bridge
Total length256.7 feet
Width34 feet
Longest span147 feet
Clearance below 14 feet
History
Opened1887 as part of the Broadway Avenue Bridge; moved to current location in 1987
Statistics
Daily traffic 1077 vehicles per day
Location
Merriam Street Bridge

Merriam Street Bridge is a truss bridge that spans the east channel of the Mississippi River between Nicollet Island and the east bank of the river in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The bridge was originally built in 1887 by King Iron Bridge Company as one of the four spans of the Broadway Avenue Bridge. When the Broadway Avenue Bridge was reconstructed in 1987, one span was preserved and moved to Nicollet Island. The truss span is actually decorative; the bridge is supported by a beam from underneath.

The original Broadway Avenue Bridge was one of the fanciest bridges on the Mississippi River. It featured finials on each top corner and a band of scrolls, crosses, and lines between them. The horizontal struts and guard railings used X-shapes as a pattern. Each end of the bridge has a hexagonal cast iron plate embossed with the date and the designer of the bridge. The bridge now serves as a connector between parkland on Nicollet Island and the Saint Anthony Main development on the east bank, allowing good opportunities for visitors to stroll across the river.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Swing bridge</span> Bridge which pivots around the mid-point

A swing bridge is a movable bridge that has as its primary structural support a vertical locating pin and support ring, usually at or near to its center of gravity, about which the swing span can then pivot horizontally as shown in the animated illustration to the right. Small swing bridges as found over canals may be pivoted only at one end, opening as would a gate, but require substantial underground structure to support the pivot.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stone Arch Bridge (Minneapolis)</span> Bridge crossing the Mississippi river in Minnesota, United States

The Stone Arch Bridge is a former railroad bridge crossing the Mississippi River at Saint Anthony Falls in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the only arched bridge made of stone on the entire Mississippi River. It is the second oldest bridge on the river next to Eads Bridge. The bridge was built to connect the railway system to the new Union Depot, which at that time was planned to be built between Hennepin Avenue and Nicollet Avenue. The bridge was completed in 1883, costing $650,000 at the time. 117 Portland Avenue is the general address of the historic complex.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Truss bridge</span> Bridge whose load-bearing superstructure is composed of a truss

A truss bridge is a bridge whose load-bearing superstructure is composed of a truss, a structure of connected elements, usually forming triangular units. The connected elements, typically straight, may be stressed from tension, compression, or sometimes both in response to dynamic loads. There are several types of truss bridges, including some with simple designs that were among the first bridges designed in the 19th and early 20th centuries. A truss bridge is economical to construct primarily becauses it uses materials efficiently.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hennepin Avenue Bridge</span> Bridge in Minneapolis, Minnesota

The Hennepin Avenue Bridge is the structure that carries Hennepin County State Aid Highway 52, Hennepin Avenue, across the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Minnesota, at Nicollet Island. Officially, it is the Father Louis Hennepin Bridge, in honor of the 17th-century explorer Louis Hennepin, who was the first European to see the Saint Anthony Falls, a short distance downriver. Two of the three previous structures have been suspension bridges, while a third—which existed nearly a century—was composed of steel arch spans. The original crossing, which opened as a toll bridge on January 23, 1855, is believed to have been the first permanent span across the Mississippi at any point. Other bridges were completed in 1876, 1891, and most recently 1990. Today, the bridge's main span is 190 metres (620 ft) in length.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neighborhoods of Minneapolis</span> Official communities and neighborhood of Minneapolis

The U.S. city of Minneapolis is officially defined by the Minneapolis City Council as divided into eleven communities, each containing multiple official neighborhoods. Informally, there are city areas with colloquial labels. Residents may also group themselves by their city street suffixes, North, Northeast, South, Southeast, and Southwest.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nicollet Island</span> Island on the Mississippi River in central Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

Nicollet Island is an island in the Mississippi River just north of Saint Anthony Falls in central Minneapolis, Minnesota. According to the United States Census Bureau the island has a land area of 194,407 square metres (0.075 sq mi) and a 2000 census population of 144 persons. The island makes up a large part of the city-designated Nicollet Island/East Bank neighborhood. The island is named for cartographer Joseph Nicollet, who mapped the Upper Mississippi in the 1830s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Huey P. Long Bridge (Jefferson Parish)</span> Road and railroad bridge in Louisiana, U.S.

The Huey P. Long Bridge, located in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, is a cantilevered steel through-truss bridge that carries a two-track railroad line over the Mississippi River at mile 106.1, with three lanes of US 90 on each side of the central tracks. It is several kilometers upriver from the city of New Orleans. The East Bank entrance is at Elmwood, Louisiana, and the West Bank at Bridge City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saint Anthony Main</span> Commercial area in Minneapolis, Minnesota

Saint Anthony Main refers to an area of buildings with multiple owners located on Main Street across from Saint Anthony Falls in the Nicollet Island/East Bank, Minneapolis section of Southeast, Minneapolis in the U.S. state of Minnesota. Commonly the area is associated with Northeast, Minneapolis as it is actually northeast of downtown on the east side of the Mississippi River. It opened as a festival marketplace in the 1980s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">High Bridge (St. Paul)</span> Bridge in St. Paul, Minnesota

The Smith Avenue High Bridge or the High Bridge is an inverted arch bridge that carries Minnesota State Highway 149 and Smith Avenue over the Mississippi River in Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. It was built and opened in 1987 at a cost of $20 million. The bridge carries two lanes of street traffic over the river and is the highest bridge in St. Paul, with a deck height of 160 ft (49 m) and a clearance below of 149 ft (45 m).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Quincy Rail Bridge</span> Bridge in Missouri and Quincy, Illinois

The Quincy Rail Bridge is a truss bridge that carries a rail line across the Mississippi River between West Quincy, Missouri, and Quincy, Illinois, USA. It was originally constructed in 1868 for the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, a predecessor of BNSF Railway.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Minneapolis BNSF Rail Bridge</span> Bridge in Minneapolis, Minnesota

Minneapolis BNSF Rail Bridge is a combination plate girder bridge and truss bridge that spans the main channel of the Mississippi River between downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota and Nicollet Island in Minneapolis. It is located adjacent to the current Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Plymouth Avenue Bridge</span> Bridge in Minneapolis, Minnesota

The Plymouth Avenue Bridge is a segmental bridge that spans the Mississippi River in Minneapolis. It was built in 1983 and was designed by Van Doren-Hazard-Stallings. The construction of this bridge was unique, for it was the first segmental concrete girder bridge built in Minnesota. This method of design uses a "form traveler" that shapes the concrete as it is built out from the piers. This avoided the use of falsework and avoided impeding river traffic. The concrete is also engineered to be salt-resistant by the use of post-tensioning. Tubes run through the concrete structure carrying strands of cable. With tension on the cables, the structure is designed to be under compression. This prevents cracks and hinders the intrusion of salt water. Since then, other bridges in Minnesota have used this construction method, including the I-35W Saint Anthony Falls Bridge in Minneapolis, the Wabasha Street Bridge in downtown St. Paul, and the Wakota Bridge in South St. Paul.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Broadway Avenue Bridge</span> Bridge in Minneapolis, Minnesota

Broadway Avenue Bridge is a girder bridge that spans the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Designed by Norman C. Davis and Shawn Pierson Bruns of Van Doren-Hazard-Stallings, it was built in 1987. The bridge has a rather streamlined shape, but its piers are more ornate. The piers have two flat columns that taper together, with a base that extends out to the full width of the bridge.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nicollet Island/East Bank, Minneapolis</span> Neighborhood in Hennepin, Minnesota, United States

Nicollet Island/East Bank is a neighborhood in the University community of Minneapolis.

The Minneapolis Streetcar System was a proposed streetcar system for the city of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Extensive studies and plans for the new system were completed in 2007 and presented to the Minneapolis City Council in January 2008; on April 2, 2010, the Council voted to approve the plans and seek funding. On December 21, 2010 the Federal Transit Administration granted $900,000 to further study the Nicollet and Central Avenue corridors. In June 2021, after no further development on the system, a bill authorized the Metropolitan Council to use funds collected for the Nicollet-Central line to be spent on bus rapid transit funding.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Franklin Steele</span>

Franklin Steele was an early settler of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Born in Chester County, Pennsylvania, of Scottish descent, Steele worked in the Lancaster, Pennsylvania, post office as a young man, where he once met President James Buchanan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St. Anthony Falls Historic District</span> United States historic place

The following are all the contributing resources to the Saint Anthony Falls Historic District in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The District is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, thus these properties are on the NRHP. The "period of significance" of the District was 1858–1941. The district's archaeological record is considered to be one of the most-endangered historic sites in Minnesota.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eastman tunnel</span> Collapsed tunnel in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

The Eastman tunnel, also called the Hennepin Island tunnel, was a 2,000-foot-long (610 m) underground passage in Saint Anthony, Minnesota, dug beneath the Mississippi River riverbed between 1868 and 1869 to create a tailrace so water-powered business could be located upstream of Saint Anthony Falls on Nicollet Island. The tunnel ran downstream from Nicollet Island, beneath Hennepin Island, and exited below Saint Anthony Falls.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">King Bridge Company</span>

The King Iron Bridge & Manufacturing Company was a late-19th-century bridge building company located in Cleveland, Ohio. It was founded by Zenas King (1818–1892) in 1858 and subsequently managed by his sons, James A. King and Harry W. King and then his grandson, Norman C. King, until the mid-1920s. Many of the bridges built by the company were used during America's expansion west in the late 19th century and early 20th century, and some of these bridges are still standing today.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arch Street Bridge</span> Bridge in Paterson, New Jersey

Arch Street Bridge is Parker truss bridge over the Passaic River in Paterson, New Jersey. It was built in 1907 and rehabilitated in 1997. It was the third structure built at the location within a few years, the other having been destroyed by floods in 1902 and 1903. The bridge was once a crossing for the Public Service trolley lines.

References