Broadway Avenue Bridge

Broadway Avenue Bridge
Coordinates 44°59′56″N 93°16′31″W / 44.99889°N 93.27528°W / 44.99889; -93.27528Coordinates: 44°59′56″N 93°16′31″W / 44.99889°N 93.27528°W / 44.99889; -93.27528
Carries Four lanes of West Broadway/Broadway Street Northeast
Crosses Mississippi River
Locale Minneapolis, Minnesota
Official name Broadway Avenue Bridge
Maintained by City of Minneapolis
ID number 27608
Characteristics
Design Girder bridge
Total length 857 feet
Width 52 feet
Longest span 186 feet
Clearance below 22.6 feet
History
Opened 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.

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.

This span of the old Broadway Avenue Bridge lives on as the Merriam Street Bridge.
1985 view of the bridge

See also

References

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