The Bridges And Structures Of The
Major Rivers Of Minneapolis And St. Paul

Being a road geek, I recently noticed three trends that are of concern to me. The first is that while we are fortunate to have a number of modern high-speed freeway river crossings, the older bridges that have been replaced are quickly being destroyed and wiped from history. Second, the misplaced paranoia about terrorism has many places attempting to make public photography illegal. Finally, as I have once again started riding a motorcycle, and my learner's permit does not allow me to use freeways, I find that I cannot use the vast majority of river crossings to ride to work since nearly all are classed as freeways. There are no leisurely river crossings where you can still do some sight-seeing without getting run over by a flock of giant SUV's or speed-crazed rice burners.

The result is this collection of Minneapolis and St. Paul metro area bridge and other river structure photos. To qualify, a bridge or dam has to span the main channel of the Mississippi River, Minnesota River, or St. Croix River, all of which come together in the 7 county metro area. In addition, many historic and non-channel bridges are also presented. It is an exciting time given all the new bridges that have gone up in the past decade, but at the same time, it is sad how many of the old ones were lost in the process.

As it turns out, January 23, 2005 is the 150th anniversary of the opening of the first Mississippi River bridge in the area at Hennepin Ave. Follow this link for the excellent Minneapolis Riverfront District celebration of the bridges.

These pages are largely finished. They will, however, be growing and improving over time. I have some photography to complete, and I am still doing research on some of the bridges. This is my first experiment using a digital camera. While the digital camera is handy, I am finding that I am not able to get the results that I routinely get with my Maxxum SLR cameras. I have also been surprised at how hard it is photograph a bridge. Most of them are in areas where it is hard to get side and under shots, many do not have pedestrian walkways, and they are so big that you have to get far back, which leads to having obstructions in the way. Finding good photo locations is the big trick. As a result, I am reshooting much of the photography over time with a new Minolta Maxxum digital SLR.