The line terminated in Sioux Falls until 1893, when the Great Northern Railway continued its expansion towards Yankton, South Dakota; where it met the Chicago & North Western.
The line effectively served as a mainline between the Twin Ports of Duluth and Superior and Sioux Falls, when connected with its connections.
By 1970, the Great Northern merged with rival Northern Pacific and Chicago, Burlington & Quincy to form Burlington Northern Railway.
By the mid-1970s, the trans-Minnesota saw a significant drop in traffic. Along with cutting significant portions of the line in Minnesota, Burlington Northern also took out Yankton to Sioux Falls in 1981.
In 1996, the Burlington Northern merged with the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway to form BNSF Railway, the current operators of the line from Garretson to Sioux Falls, now the Corson Subdivision.
06/26/21
This simply constructed Deck Girder bridge crosses a small drainage ditch on the west side of Brandon. It is alongside Redwood Boulevard.
The bridge contains three deck girder spans, approached by trestle on either side. It rests on wooden substructures. This may indicate that the bridge was a temporary fix to a derailment or other bridge collapse.
Typically if a temporary repair, these may have been older spans relocated to this location.
This type of bridge has been a prime target for replacement in past years, due to the unfavorability of wooden substructures.
The author has ranked the bridge as locally significant because of the possible relocation history, as well as the common design and age.
The photo above is an overview. The bridge can be easily accessed from a parallel road.