By 1868, it was extended another 29 miles to Howard Lake, and 49 more miles to Willmar the following year.
In 1879, this segment of the StP&P was sold to the St. Paul, Minneapolis and 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 main line, with secondary connections to other points.
By 1970, the Great Northern merged with rival Northern Pacific and Chicago Burlington & Quincy to form Burlington Northern Railroad.
BN continued to use this as a mainline, supplementing other busy segments throughout the area.
In 1996, BN merged with Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway to form BNSF Railway, the current owners of this line.
BNSF continues to operate this route with a fair amount of traffic. It is known as the Wayzata Subdivision.
11/07/21
Located on the east side of Nicollet Island, this bridge crosses the east channel of the Mississippi River next to the Abandoned Wisconsin Central Bridge, which it shares an abutment with.
According to GN documents, the bridge was built in 1892, but by 1924, it was desired to rebuild the bridge. As a result, a standard deck girder was installed on the eastbound track, and it appears the original 1893 westbound spans were rebuilt by adding two additional girder lines, likely from the previous eastbound spans. The entire bridge rests on stone substructures.
The eastbound track spans were replaced in 2008 by precast concrete spans as part of a rehabilitation for the Northstar Line.
The replaced girders were once placed west of Minneapolis in the Cedar Lake yard, although they were later removed. It is unknown what may have happened to these girders, although it is possible they may have been reused for emergency repairs somewhere else.
The author has ranked this bridge as being locally significant, due to the common design.
The photo above is looking east along the bridge. The photos below show construction, and were used with permission by John Hill.
| Upstream | Abandoned East Channel Bridge |
| West | Nicollet Island Rail Bridge |
| Downstream | Stone Arch Bridge |
