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
Located just south of Halsted, this three span deck girder bridge crosses an unnamed creek along US-75 at the intersection with Norman County Road 21.
Built in 1913 to replace a longer wooden trestle, the bridge consists of three deck girder spans and a single timber stringer span on either side. The entire bridge rests on concrete substructures. The timber spans were added to replace deteriorated concrete slab spans.
It is unknown why such a large and heavy bridge was built across this small drainage creek. It is possible that the nearby Red River floods so badly at this location that it was the only good option.
Overall, the bridge appeared to be in fair condition during a 2012 inspection. Since then, the bridge has had the deck removed.
The author has ranked the bridge as being locally significant, due to the common design.
The photo above is an overview.