Lafayette Bridge

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Lafayette Bridge
Picture of the Lafayette Bridge taken in early spring, 2006.
Official name	Lafayette Street Bridge
Carries	Four lanes of U.S. Route 52
Crosses	Mississippi River
Locale	St. Paul, Minnesota
Maintained by	Minnesota Department of Transportation
ID number	9800
Design	Plate girder bridge
Longest span	362 feet
Total length	3375 feet
Width	67 feet
Clearance below	51 feet
Opening date	1968
Coordinates	44°56′48″N, 93°04′45″W

The Lafayette Bridge is a bridge carrying U.S. Route 52 across the Mississippi River in downtown St. Paul. At this point, US 52 is on the Lafayette Freeway. The bridge spans across railroad yards north of the Mississippi, the river itself, and industrial areas south of the Mississippi. The Lafayette Bridge is one of the longest Mississippi River bridges in the Twin Cities.

An earlier bridge on Lafayette Street, built in 1905 by C.A.P. Turner, was removed to make room for the Lafayette Bridge. The 1905 bridge spanned the Soo Line railroad tracks, not the river itself. This was an experimental bridge of Turner's design, being a flat slab resting on mushroom-capped columns for support.

In the aftermath of the collapse of the I-35W Mississippi bridge in Minneapolis, the Lafayette Bridge was cited by Minneapolis newspaper Star Tribune as another bridge in Minnesota with insufficient redundancy to survive the collapse of a single structural support element.^[1]

[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. 

Bridges of the Mississippi River Upstream Robert Street Bridge Lafayette Bridge Downstream St. Paul Union Pacific Rail Bridge