In 1890, the StPM&M would become part of the Great Northern Railway, a system of railroads in the Northern United States.
By 1891, the route was extended to Crookston, which would become a major junction of railroads.
During this same time, the line here would be upgraded.
By 1970, the Great Northern merged with rival Northern Pacific, as well as partner Chicago, Burlington & Quincy to form Burlington Northern.
The line became known as the "P Line", named after Perley. It was one of several parallel routes through Minnesota and North Dakota.
In 1996, BN merged with Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe to form BNSF Railway, who sought to discard extra lines.
One such line was the portion of the "P Line" between Perley and Crookston. It would be sold to Minnesota Northern, a Short Line.
Minnesota Northern would abandoned the portion between Shelley and Perley in 2011, and BNSF would abandoned their section between Georgetown and Perley. An additional section between Nielsville and Perley would be abandoned in 2018.
Today, MNN still operates the segment from Crookston to Nielsville, while BNSF has retained the segment from Moorhead to Georgetown.
06/26/21
This large deck girder bridge crosses the Wild Rice River, parallel to US-75.
The bridge features massive stone piers, and several deck girder spans. In addition, the abutment on the north end has been converted to a pier; and trestle approach spans added. br> The bridge was built when the line here was first built. However, it is in poor condition. One of the piers has been found to be undercut and shifting.
Because of this shifting pier, the Minnesota Northern Railroad opted to close the route. When the route was finally abandoned, the pier was several feet out of alignment.
The future of the structure is presently unknown. It is possible it will be converted to a trail bridge.
The author has ranked the bridge as locally significant, due to the lack of sizable spans or old spans of any type in the area.
The photo above is an overview.