Short Line Bridge

Located between Lake Street and Franklin Avenue, this large deck truss bridge carries the former Milwaukee Road mainline across the Mississippi River, East River Parkway and West River Parkway. The first bridge here was built in 1880, and consisted of three Fink deck trusses, designed by Charles Shaler Smith and fabricated by Edge Moor Bridge Works. By 1900, the Milwaukee Road was seeking to double track their route between Chicago and Minneapolis, and the old bridge had become too light for traffic. As a result, a large project was began in 1901 to replace the old iron bridge with a heavier steel deck truss bridge.

During construction of the new bridge, new river piers were constructed longitudinally offset of the existing piers. The new river piers (#2 and #3) consisted of a base constructed of Kettle River Sandstone provided by the Minnesota Sandstone Company. The remainder of the pier was constructed with limestone from Stone City, Iowa. The trusses were constructed with the panels offset from the existing truss, and were constructed with a traveler on falsework. Because of the importance of this line, railroad traffic could not be interrupted, and the new trusses had to be constructed and the old removed without interfering with railroad traffic. The three deck trusses would utilize a pin connected Baltimore design, and varying sizes were used to avoid interruptions to traffic during construction. The west truss would be a 9-panel 288-feet 8-inch long span, the center truss would be a 10-panel span at 319-feet 8-inches long, and the east truss would be a 8-panel span at 231-feet 8-inches long. Each of these trusses utilized a depth of 40-feet and used a unique Z-bar floor ^[1], which was unique to the bridge. The west approach of the bridge would be a standard 65-foot through plate girder, and two 60-foot and one 30-foot through plate girder would be utilized on the east approach. The two river piers were constructed of stone, while the remaining substructures were constructed of concrete. The east approach utilized a steel tower under the 30-foot span. Onward Bates, Superintendent of the Bridge and Building Department prepared the design for the bridge, while C.F. Loweth was in charge of construction. Eugene Greenwald, chief erector for the Milwaukee Road, oversaw the erection of the bridge. ^[2]

Since the bridges original 1901 construction, it has remained largely unchanged. The second track was removed between 1984 and 1991. As the industrial area along Hiawatha Avenue has developed, the bridge has seen a steep decline in traffic. An arson in 2006 resulted in the closure of the bridge, until it was repaired utilizing specialized ties later that year. The Midtown Greenway currently ends at the west end of this bridge. There are hopes that the bridge can be reused as part of the Midtown Greenway, either with shared railroad and trail operations, or solely as trail operations. Overall, the bridge appears to be in fair to poor condition, with some deterioration noted throughout the bridge. Significant deterioration to the superstructure of the approach was noted. The author has ranked this bridge as being highly significant, due to the unique design.