Mendota Bridge

Mendota Bridge
Three spans of the Mendota Bridge as viewed from the west side, in Fort Snelling State Park.
Coordinates
Carries	Four lanes of MN 55
Crosses	Minnesota River
Locale	Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota
Maintained by	Minnesota Department of Transportation
ID number	4190
Characteristics
Design	13 arch spans
Total length	4,113 ft (1,254 m)
Width	71 ft (22 m)
Longest span	304 ft (93 m)
Clearance below	100 ft (30 m)
History
Opened	1926, 1994
Statistics
Daily traffic	39000 vehicles/day

The Mendota Bridge (full name Fort Snelling – Mendota Bridge) carries Minnesota State Highway 55 over the Minnesota River between Fort Snelling and Mendota Heights. It is the final bridge over the Minnesota River before the Minnesota flows into the Mississippi River at the "Meeting of the waters" or "Mendota" in the Dakota language. Traffic on the north end of the bridge may turn onto the Fort Road Bridge (MN 5) to cross the Mississippi River into St. Paul, Minnesota. The skylines of both Minneapolis and St. Paul can be seen simultaneously from the bridge.

History

The structure was designed by C.A.P. Turner and Walter H. Wheeler. Turner also designed the Aerial Lift Bridge in Duluth, Minnesota and the Liberty Memorial Bridge between Bismarck and Mandan, North Dakota.

The bridge is dedicated to the "Gopher Gunners", 151st Field Artillery who died in World War I.

It has a length of 4,113 feet (1,254 m) and was the longest continuous concrete arch bridge in the world when it was constructed in 1924–1926. It consists of thirteen arches each 304 ft (93 m) wide. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

Between 1940 and 1965, the bridge also carried the multiplexed designation of Highway 100.

From 1992–1994, the old bridge was demolished down to the arches and rebuilt from the arches up with the new wider deck two feet higher than the original.

File:MendotaBridge-underneath.jpg

A look at the bridge from underneath, showing the details of the arches, spandrels, and deck. This was taken in Fort Snelling State Park.

See also

• List of crossings of the Minnesota River

References

Citations

External links

• Mendota Bridge in Highways, Byways, And Bridge Photography
• National Bridge Inventory