In 1877, the Western Railroad Company of Minnesota built an extension south from Brainerd to Sauk Rapids. This company became a part of the St. Paul & Northern Pacific Railroad after completion.
In 1884, the St. Paul and Northern Pacific Railway Company built from Minneapolis to Sauk Rapids, connecting Moorhead to Minneapolis via Brainerd.
The StP&NP built a cutacross between Little Falls, Minnesota and the Northern Pacific line at Staples. This route reduced miles and provided for a much more efficient trip.
By 1898, the StP&NP became a part of the Northern Pacific. Northern Pacific began making heavy upgrades to this line.
Among the upgrades Northern Pacific began was a double tracking project from Minneapolis to Moorhead. In addition, between Dilworth and Detroit Lakes, a massive regrading project had to be completed to allow for better operations.
Northern Pacific merged with their rival Great Northern in 1970 to form Burlington Northern.
Burlington Northern used this line heavily, before merging with the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe to form BNSF.
Under BNSF, this line sees up to 60 trains a day in some places. The line is very commonly known as the Staples Subdivision, between Minneapolis and Moorhead.
In addition, BNSF operates the Carlton to Staples segment as the Brainerd Subdivision, which is an important connection to the Twin Ports.
06/26/21
This bridge is a simple deck girder span over Wavy Drive just west of New York Mills. It originally crossed US Highway 10.
This bridge was originally built in 1928 to cross the newly formed US-10N. This would later be renamed to US-10 and eventually moved onto a new alignment in 1976. The substructures are constructed of concrete.
The author has ranked this bridge as locally significant because of the common design.
The photo above is an overview.