Broadway Avenue Bridge

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Broadway Avenue Bridge
Official name	Broadway Avenue Bridge
Carries	Four lanes of West Broadway/Broadway Street Northeast
Crosses	Mississippi River
Locale	Minneapolis, Minnesota
Maintained by	City of Minneapolis
ID number	27608
Design	Girder bridge
Longest span	186 feet
Total length	857 feet
Width	52 feet
Clearance below	22.6 feet
Opening date	1987
Bridges over the Mississippi in Minneapolis/St. Paul. Broadway Ave. Bridge is in the bottom half of this image between N. Pacific-BNSF Minneapolis and Plymouth Ave. bridges
Coordinates	44°59′56″N, 93°16′31″W

Broadway Avenue Bridge is a girder bridge that spans the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It was built in 1987 and was designed by Norman C. Davis and Shawn Pierson Bruns of VanDoren-Hazard-Stallings. The bridge has a rather streamlined shape, but its piers are more ornate. The piers have two flat columns that taper together, with a base that extends out to the full width of the bridge.

This bridge is the third bridge to cross the river at this location. The first bridge was a wooden structure completed in 1857, but washed away in a flood in 1859. The second bridge was a four-span Pratt truss bridge built in 1887. It spanned the northern industrial district that was developing on both sides of the river. The 1887 bridge was very ornate, featuring finials on each top corner and a band of scrolls, crosses, and lines between them. The horizontal struts and guard railings used X-shapes as a pattern. In 1950, the bridge was raised 20 feet to allow barges and larger boats to pass underneath. The old bridge was removed in 1985, but a single span of the bridge lives on as the Merriam Street Bridge that connects Nicollet Island to the St. Anthony section of Minneapolis.

Bridges of the Mississippi River Upstream Northern Pacific-BNSF Minneapolis Rail Bridge Broadway Avenue Bridge Downstream Plymouth Avenue Bridge

[edit] See also

• List of crossings of the Upper Mississippi River

[edit] References

• Costello, Mary Charlotte (2002). Climbing the Mississippi River Bridge by Bridge, Volume Two: Minnesota. Cambridge, MN: Adventure Publications. ISBN 0-9644518-2-4.