This piece of trackage immediately became part of the St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba Railway. The StPM&M had a considerable amount of trackage throughout Minnesota.
By 1890, the StPM&M became part of the Great Northern Railway. The collection of railroads dating back to the St. Paul & Pacific were primarily controlled by railroad magnate James J Hill.
Great Northern used this as a secondary mainline, serving traffic between St. Cloud and Minneapolis.
By 1970, the Great Northern merged with rival Northern Pacific and Chicago Burlington & Quincy to form Burlington Northern Railroad.
Burlington Northern would downgrade this line through the 1970s and 1980s, in favor of the double tracked Staples Subdivision.
The route was abandoned in 1983 between Monticello and St. Cloud. By 1996, the Burlington Northern merged with Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe to form BNSF Railway.
BNSF still operates the route between Minneapolis and Monticello. The remainder is abandoned.
06/26/21
Located just west of Penn Avenue in the Bryn Mawr neighborhood of Minneapolis, this small concrete slab bridge crosses Bassett Creek.
Built in 1914 to replace a wooden trestle, the bridge consists of four spans of concrete slab. This type of bridge was cheap, quick and very economical to build. The 16 foot spans are typical of the Great Northern, who built thousands of these types of bridges.
At one time, there was another bridge just north of Highway 55 that was virtually identical. However, that bridge was filled in due to its deteriorating condition.
Overall, this bridge appears to be in fair to poor condition, with serious spalling beginning to form around the joints. There are numerous areas where rebar is exposed.
The author has ranked this bridge as being minimally significant, due to the common design. The photo above is an overview.