Closed to rail traffic in 1980 Closed to auto traffic in 1999 Partial Demolition in March–April 2009 Converted into a recreational pier (opening June 11, 2011)
The Rock Island Swing Bridge was a swing bridge that spanned the Mississippi River between Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota, and St. Paul Park, Minnesota. It was also known as the Newport Rail Bridge, as it had a spur to Newport, Minnesota, and J.A.R. bridge, after previous owners Joan and Al Roman of Chicago. It was one of the few double-decker bridges on the Mississippi, with the top level formerly used for railroad traffic and the bottom level formerly used as a road crossing. It also was one of a few toll bridges in Minnesota, and one of the last remaining ones. It closed to rail traffic in 1980, and road traffic in 1999, when the toll was 75 cents. After closing, the bridge sat dormant in the open position for 10 years before being partially demolished in 2009. It was converted into a recreational pier, which was open to the public on June 11, 2011.[1]
The bridge was built in 1895 for the South St. Paul Beltline Railroad by the Pittsburgh Bridge Company. Originally, it connected stockyards in nearby South St. Paul, Minnesota, to the mail rail lines of the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy, and Milwaukee Road that ran on the east bank of the Mississippi River in Washington County, Minnesota.[2]
The bridge was formerly owned by the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad until that line went bankrupt in 1980, first as a toll bridge until 1938, then as a free bridge. After that, local automotive traffic had to detour 7.5 miles (12.1km) north to the Wakota Bridge or 18 miles (29km) south to the Hastings High Bridge. Until the first Wakota Bridge was built in 1959, it was the only Mississippi crossing between Downtown St. Paul and Hastings, Minnesota.
There is some evidence that gangster John Dillinger fled across the bridge into Inver Grove Heights after a running gun battle with Dakota County deputies in Newport and St. Paul Park.[2][3]
Al Roman of Chicago bought the bridge and reopened it in 1982. This required special legislation for an individual to own a bridge, and it became one of the few toll bridges in Minnesota. In 1999, an inspection revealed that the bridge had a bad beam, and it was permanently closed to automobile traffic. The estimated replacement cost was at least $11million. J.A.R Bridge, Inc., eventually requested that Washington County help fund a thorough inspection, in hopes that a buyer could be found. Washington County was not receptive to the idea, however, feeling that the bridge was so old that there was no point putting any more money into it — if there was a need for a crossing in the area, they should look at building a new one. At that point, Roman owed $6500 in back taxes; with no prospect of being able to reopen, he stopped paying taxes altogether and the bridge was seized. Washington County was given management of the bridge in 2003.
As of June 2006, Washington County, Minnesota, officials had contemplated the removal of the bridge. County engineer Don Theisen called the bridge "a rusty bucket of bolts" and said that it had been impeding barge traffic. Estimated removal costs were said to be $5million.[4]
The eastern span was adjacent to a large Marathon Oil refinery in Saint Paul Park.[2] Washington County turned the eastern approach road over to the refinery, and it was soon blocked off. With the local construction of the Wakota Bridge project in Saint Paul Park and Newport, Washington County Roads 22 and 38 had their paths changed and now no longer approach the bridge. The local roads have also been changed, and gates now block the former streets leading to the area. There was the possibility of using part of the western fixed span as a pedestrian outlook of the river as it is near a proposed park, and public tours of the western span were held on October 25, 2008, to bring awareness to this issue.[2][5]
The bridge was set for demolition in Winter 2009/2010. However, on November 24, 2008, all access to the bridge was prohibited, after a 200-foot segment of the eastern span collapsed onto the riverbank.[6]
Within two months of the collapse on the eastern span, a contractor was quickly found to demolish it. Demolition of the bridge began on March 3, 2009. As it had already collapsed and in order to end the refinery's hassle of dealing with trespassers, the eastern span was quickly removed. Following the demolition of the eastern span, the swing span of the bridge was briefly closed for a few days, marking the first time in 10 years it was closed. During the months of March and April, the swing span was slowly demolished, then most of the western span, leaving only the bridge-closing mechanism in the river. By the end of April, only two sections of the western span near the center of the river remained.[7]
Last-ditch efforts began to save as much of the bridge as possible.[8] In May 2009 a moratorium was put into effect prohibiting further demolition until May 2011.[9]
After numerous fundraiser activities and other efforts to save the bridge,[10][11] the remaining sections were to be turned into a recreational pier and the land around the bridge into a park. The completed project was planned to open in November 2010, but flooding halted work on the project.
Work was again put on hold on November 4, 2010 when the remaining two spans of the original bridge caught on fire, destroying the wood on the bridge. It took three and a half hours to put the fire out due to windy conditions. It was later revealed that sparks from welding caused the old railroad ties on the bridge to ignite and start a fire.[12] The deck of the bridge was heavily damaged, but according to a few news reports the original steel structure was said to still be structurally sound.[13]
Restoration work on the bridge resumed on November 8, 2010. The old decks of the bridge were removed and replaced with new ones.[14] Despite the obstacles, a ribbon cutting ceremony was held on June 8, 2011 and the new pier and park opened to the public on June 11, 2011.[1][15][16]
Dakota County is the third-most populous county in the U.S. state of Minnesota, located in the east central portion of the state. As of the 2010 United States Census, the population was 398,552. The county seat is Hastings. Dakota County is named for the Dakota Sioux tribal bands who inhabited the area. The name is recorded as "Dahkotah" in the United States Census records until 1851. Dakota County is included in the Minneapolis–St. Paul–Bloomington, MN–WI Metropolitan Statistical Area, the sixteenth largest metropolitan area in the United States with about 3.64 million residents. The largest city in Dakota County is the city of Lakeville, the eleventh-largest city in Minnesota and sixth-largest Twin Cities suburb. The county is bordered by the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers on the north, and the state of Wisconsin on the east.
Minneapolis–Saint Paul is a major metropolitan area built around the Mississippi, Minnesota and St. Croix rivers in east central Minnesota. The area is commonly known as the Twin Cities after its two largest cities, Minneapolis, the most populous city in the state, and its neighbor to the east, Saint Paul, the state capital. It is an example of twin cities in the sense of geographical proximity. Minnesotans living outside of Minneapolis and Saint Paul often refer to the two together simply as "the Cities".
Inver Grove Heights is a city in Dakota County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 33,880 at the 2010 census. The city was formed on March 9, 1965, with the merger of the village of Inver Grove and Inver Grove Township.
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 turning 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.
The Broadway Bridge is a lift bridge across the Harlem River Ship Canal in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It connects the neighborhoods of Inwood on Manhattan Island and Marble Hill on the mainland. The bridge consists of two decks. The lower deck carries Broadway, which is designated as U.S. Route 9 at this location. The upper deck carries the New York City Subway's IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line, serving the 1 train.
Area code 651 is the telephone numbering plan code for Saint Paul, Minnesota, and the eastern suburbs of the Twin Cities. A dogleg portion also extends to the southeast along the Mississippi River to include cities such as Hastings. The region was the fifth area code created in the state in 1998, when it was carved out of area code 612.
Minnesota State Highway 610 (MN 610) is an east–west freeway in the Twin Cities region of Minnesota. The freeway connects Interstate 94 (I-94), County Road 81, and CR 130 in northern Hennepin County to U.S. Highway 10 (US 10) in southern Anoka County. MN 610 crosses the Mississippi River on the Richard P. Braun Bridge between suburban Brooklyn Park and Coon Rapids. The highway is 12.3 miles (19.8 km) long.
Minnesota State Highway 110 (MN 110) was a short 5.245-mile-long (8.441 km) connector highway in Minnesota, which ran from an interchange with State Highway 55 in Mendota Heights to an interchange with Interstate 494 in Inver Grove Heights, south of downtown Saint Paul.
The Wakota Bridge is a ten-lane bridge carrying Interstate 494 over the Mississippi River between South St. Paul and Newport, Minnesota, United States. It was completed in 2010, replacing a four-lane span built in 1959. The name was given to the previous span in the early 1960s, and is derived from the two counties it connects, Washington and Dakota. Lunda Construction Company won the bid to build a new five-lane west-bound span, remove the existing bridge, and build a new five-lane east-bound span, which was completed in 2010. It is the widest bridge in Minnesota in number of lanes, along with the I-35W Saint Anthony Falls Bridge in Minneapolis.
Minnesota State Highway 149 (MN 149) is a 9.924-mile-long (15.971 km) highway in Minnesota that runs from its intersection with State Highway 3 in Inver Grove Heights to its northern terminus at its intersection with State Highway 5 in Saint Paul.
The La Crosse Rail Bridge is a swing bridge that spans the Mississippi River between La Crescent, Minnesota and La Crosse, Wisconsin. The first bridge in this location initially was designed and ready to build by June 1876, and was completed in November 1876 by the Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway, a predecessor of the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad. It was later replaced in 1902. It is at the Western end of the Canadian Pacific Railway Tomah Subdivision. Amtrak's Empire Builder crosses this bridge.
The Plymouth Avenue Bridge is a segmental bridge that spans the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It was built in 1983 and was designed by VanDoren-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.
Omaha Road Bridge Number 15 is a swing bridge that spans the Mississippi River in St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It was built in 1915 by the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha Railway, though it, and the line from St. Paul to Mendota, was jointly owned with the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway. The causeway curves around Pickerel Lake in Lilydale, Minnesota, before crossing into St. Paul.
The I-35W Mississippi River bridge was an eight-lane, steel truss arch bridge that carried Interstate 35W across the Saint Anthony Falls of the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The bridge opened in 1967 and was Minnesota's third busiest, carrying 140,000 vehicles daily. It had a catastrophic failure during the evening rush hour on August 1, 2007, killing 13 people and injuring 145. The NTSB cited a design flaw as the likely cause of the collapse, noting that a too-thin gusset plate ripped along a line of rivets, and additional weight on the bridge at the time contributed to the catastrophic failure.
St. Paul Union Pacific Rail Bridge, also known as the Hoffman Swing Bridge, is a swing bridge that spans the Mississippi River between South Saint Paul, Minnesota and Saint Paul, Minnesota in the United States. It was built in 1910 by the St. Paul Bridge and Terminal Railway, and was rebuilt in 1925, after a flood in 1951, and again in 1982.
U.S. Highway 52 enters the state of Minnesota at the unincorporated community of Prosper, north of the town of Burr Oak, Iowa. The route is marked north–south in Minnesota along its independent segment from the Iowa state line to downtown St. Paul. Highway 52 is not signed along the length of its concurrency with Interstate 94 (I-94) from downtown St. Paul to the North Dakota state line at Moorhead and Fargo.
The Pasco-Kennewick Bridge or Benton-Franklin Inter-County Bridge, known locally as the Green Bridge, was a steel cantilever truss bridge in the northwest United States. It crossed the Columbia River in central Washington, connecting Pasco and Kennewick, two of the Tri-Cities. Succeeded by the Cable Bridge in 1978, it was demolished in 1990 at age 68.
Rock Island Railroad Bridge may refer to:
The Winona Rail Bridge was a swing bridge that spanned the Mississippi River between Winona, Minnesota, and Winona Junction in Buffalo, Buffalo County, Wisconsin. It was built to link the Winona and St. Peter Railroad with The La Crosse, Trempealeau & Prescott Railroad. Both became part of the Chicago and North Western Transportation Company The swing span was removed, but the box girder portion of the bridge still extends from Latsch Island just downstream of the current Main Channel Bridge. Piers from the original 1871 bridge and the box girders are in the North Channel just downstream of the current North Channel Bridge.
1 2 3 4 Giles, Kevin (October 25, 2008). "Rock Island Swing Bridge: Pedestrian possibilities". Minneapolis Star-Tribune.
↑ Matera, Dary (2004). John Dillinger: The Life and Death of America's First Celebrity Criminal. Carroll & Graf Publishers. p.281. ISBN0-7867-1354-2 (page 281 - chase from Little Bohemia)
Costello, Mary Charlotte (2002). Climbing the Mississippi River Bridge by Bridge, Volume Two: Minnesota. Cambridge, MN: Adventure Publications. ISBN0-9644518-2-4.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
