This is a bridge that I know very little about. It was built by the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul, and Omaha Railroad, which became the Chicago & Northwestern, which is now the Union Pacific Railway. The railroad bridge at this location dates back to 1872, but likely has been upgraded or replaced since then. The bridge is still in operation, and it frequently opens and closes in the summertime.

This bridge is located in an area of the Saint Croix where sandbars naturally occur. The bridge is located close to the Minnesota shore, and connects to a long causeway built across a relatively wide part of the Saint Croix river. On the Wisconsin side, the causeway branches off into two different wye-configurations. One branch of the second wye runs along the river shore, crossing a dam that holds back a tributary of the river. The river crossing paths vary from 3,150 feet to as much as 4,550 feet. Only one path currently has rails, and that supports the UP mainline. That path is approximately 3,922 feet.

Each of the four paths coming out of the two wye junctions has a small bridge where it connects to the Wisconsin shore. Once such bridge is shown in the bottom photo. The photo above was taken from the old US-12 causeway that is part of the old toll bridge. The scene is looking north towards the Minnesota shore on the west side of the river. The photo below is looking south from the marina that is located up stream from the C&NW bridge. The photo is looking due south. This photo has a little haze due to looking into the sun. It does show the navigation channels through the bridge better than the upper photo. A short truss section is visible on the left side of the photo. This truss span cannot be seen in the upper photo.