Photo Gallery

The theme for now is "bridges." I love bridges...besides being functional, they can also be works of engineering art. I've included examples of what I think are the Twin Cities area's most striking bridges. Also, I'm trying to illustrate the dilemmas facing the area: build needed roads and encourage sprawl, or risk choking our cities?

Bridges of St. Paul

When I-94 was reconstructed in St. Paul around 1990, MnDOT took the opportunity to rebuild the bridges crossing the I-94/I-35E commons area. I've included a couple of examples to show the ornate iron railings, old-fashioned lighting, and innovative sheltered pedestrian crossing designs.

	View of the Robert Street bridge, with iron railings and ornate streetlights. Note also the backlit exit signs.
	Cedar Street bridge, with a sheltered pedestrian walkway on each side. Sheltered, that is, unless the wind is blowing from the northeast, in which case it's a wind tunnel.

 Another view of the sheltered pedestrian bridge:

The Stillwater-Houlton Bridge is a lift bridge across the St. Croix River, dating back to 1931, connecting Stillwater, MN with Houlton, WI. On summer weekends, traffic backs up for a distance on the Wisconsin side, and historic Stillwater experiences virtual gridlock as the through traffic between western St. Croix County (Somerset and New Richmond) and the Twin Cities makes its way across the bridge and through Stillwater. Then, the bridge is raised at regular intervals to let larger watercraft under the bridge. Minnesota and Wisconsin have approved construction of a new 4-lane bridge south of Stillwater, which would be essentially a direct eastward extension of MN-36 to the St. Croix. The new bridge would angle across the river northeastward to the Wisconsin shore.

Environmentalists are outraged at the plan. The St. Croix River is a National Wild and Scenic River, though during the summer one could almost walk between the pleasure craft from shore to shore. They argue the bridge would irreparably damage the river. I first posted this page in 1998, and almost nothing has changed except that more money has been spent on studies.

Alternatives to the bridge? If the goal is to remove through traffic from downtown Stillwater, a new bridge at the same location obviously won't do it. There is no room for approaches on the Minnesota side, so this new bridge would also have to be a lift bridge. You could cross the river north of Stillwater, but then it would be necessary to relocate MN-36 west and north of Stillwater, requiring construction of five or six miles of additional highway. Ultimately, this bridge will deteriorate beyond repair or the lifting mechanism will be too old to fix.

Two views of the lift bridge:

	Approaching the bridge from Stillwater
Side view showing the lift section
	Congestion in the summer is often so bad that Wisconsin has designated an "Alternate WI-64", not an actual alternate state route but just a pointer to the I-94 bridge at Hudson. There are no corresponding markings on the Minnesota side.

Mendota Bridge

Thanks to Aaron of Minneapolis, who provided the following picture of the Mendota Bridge to replace the ones I lost. This is looking south from historic Ft. Snelling. By way of explanation for the setting, the Minnesota River is not a particularly large stream, but its valley is nearly a mile wide. At the end of the ice age 8000 years ago, it carried glacial melt water from Glacial Lake Agassiz, carving out the wide valley in which the much smaller present-day river flows. Near the confluence with the Mississippi River, the Mendota Bridge was built across the valley during the period 1924-26. It is a truly beautiful structure: 13 concrete arches, 4100 feet long. At the time it was built, it was the longest concrete arch bridge in the country. During 1992-94, the crumbling bridge was reconstructed. The deck was removed and the piers demolished down to the arches. The arches were repaired but retained, and new piers and a new, wider deck built.

I-35E Parkway Section South of Downtown St. Paul

When is a freeway not a freeway? When it was fought by area residents for 15 years, who exacted significant design concessions from MnDOT. Behold the I-35E "parkway", no trucks and with a 45 mph speed limit. Otherwise, looks kinda like a freeway, doesn't it. Oh, don't forget the nice planter in the median. Acerbic St. Paul Pioneer Press columnist Joe Soucheray calls it the "practice freeway."

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Created March 26 1998

Last updated July 3, 2005