Trail/Great Northern Stone Arch Bridge over Mississippi in Minneapolis, MN

(Bridge Hunter, John Weeks III, Historic Bridges, 3D Satellite) John's link has the most information.

Photo from eBook, p 422 from Bridge Hunter

Stuff about Minneapolis posted
Stone Arch Bridge, Minneapolis (1910s) via Hennepin County Library
Tom Lyman shared

Brian Marsh posted
The Stone Arch Bridge over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis on November 20, 1892. (Hennepin History Museum)
Jeff Roehl: Nice to see what the free flowing river looked like.
John Ernste: About to shut down fir some repairs.
Tom Lyman shared

This bridge is now in the pool of the Lower St. Anthony Falls Dam. There are more views of this bridge in those dam notes because this bridge is in the background of many of those photos.

Josh Schneider commented on Brian's post

 

Bob Dover posted

The Stone Arch Bridge combines many of the different types of attractions that can result in the development of a good tourist bridge. If you enjoy historic bridges, it is old, having been constructed in 1883. It was also important in the historical development of the city of Minneapolis, providing a crucial link between the wheat fields of the upper Midwest and the rapidly growing population of bread-eaters in the eastern United States. If you appreciate the recent practice of converting abandoned bridges into pedestrian and bike trails that attract urban recreationists, then this is an excellent example. Rail traffic on the bridge stopped in 1978, but the bridge was renovated into an integral part of the downtown trail and park system in 1994. The bridge is also quite attractive. It is large, at more than 2,100 feet [640m] long, is gracefully curved and, constructed mostly of rectangular granite and limestone blocks in varying shades of light gray to tan and beige.

I have uploaded several different views of the Stone Arch, along with the other nearby attractions, onto www.bridgespotting.com. The entire complex of bridges, mills, waterfalls, and locks is described in detail in Chapter 3 of my book, Bridgespotting: A Guide to Bridges that Connect People, Places, and Times.

Another view of the full height of the Stone Arch Bridge piers because the dam drained the pool for a bridge inspection.

ParkConnection

Carl Venzke posted
"The Great Northern's first Empire Builder entered service in 1929 and is pictured here crossing the famed Stone Arch Bridge that same year. The locomotive , No. 2517, won the "Marathon" name on its tender in 1925 by making a fast 3,600-mile round trip between Seattle, WA, and St. Paul, MN without requiring mechanical attention. The bridge is the only structure on the railway on which "Empire Builder" James J. Hill permitted his name to be inscribed. The flour mills of St. Anthony are seen in the upper left of the photograph. This photograph was taken on the downtown Minneapolis side of the river looking north-northeast."

This looks like a different exposure of the above photo.

Friends of BNSF posted
On June 10, 1929, BNSF predecessor Great Northern Railway opened their famous Empire Builder route. The over 2,200-mile passenger route, now operated by Amtrak, runs from Chicago to Portland and Seattle and is still in service today.

And another exposure:

Marty Bernard posted
3. Great Northern Empire Builder crossing Stone Arch Bridge, Minneapolis circa 1935.
Photographs and captions from the Minnesota Historical Society
Marty Bernard shared

Steve Gyurci posted

Minneapolis (1960)

Photo from the Star Tribune

Tom Lyman shared

GN Stone Arch Bridge, before the steel span was inserted into it.

GN Depot, above the river and to the right.

This picture is very similar to the one in Historic Bridges that is credited to the Minneapolis Photo Collection Of Hennepin County Library. Historic Bridges has a few more historical pictures of the bridge. If you look at the 3D Satellite link, the pictures with trains have to be historical because it no longer has tracks. Fortunately, it has been preserved as a trail bridge. I wish I knew about this bridge and the St. Anthony Falls area when I used to take a daughter to Minneapolis for an annual volleyball tournament. It looks like it would have been well worth a visit.

 

Jordan Palmer posted
The beautiful Stone Arch Bridge over the Mississippi River at Minneapolis from a slightly different angle. Built by James J. Hill for his Great Northern Railroad, the bridge opened in 1883. The bridge carried two tracks and was originally all stone, note the steel span over the channel, this was built in the 1960s to allow river traffic access to the northern end of Minneapolis. In order to minimize effects on rail traffic, the stone footings were widened, and the steel super structure built around the two stone arches. Once the main frames were up, rail traffic was halted the two arches were knocked out, and cross-members and tracks installed on the steel span, rail traffic was only impacted for seven hours. Unfortunately the passenger rail continued to tumble and after 1971 only Amtrak used the bridge to access the Great Northern Depot. On March 1, 1978 the new Midway Depot closer to St. Paul opened and was the last day passenger trains regularly crossed the Stone Arch Bridge. It is now open as a walking and biking path following major rehabilitation in the 1990s. I captured these photos in September 2013 from the top of the Mill City Museum.
Boyd Walker It now needs more repair work.
[To the left of the bridge is Upper Falls Lock. The smokestacks in the upper-right corner caught my eye. They are part of the UofM Southeast Steam Plant.]

Vadim Pirogov, May 2022
[Another view from the Mill City Museum. The river is running higher.]

Look at the hydraulic jump in the upper-left corner of this image.

mnhs.org/millcity

John Weeks III link documents: "The Stone Arch Bridge was built in the 1880s by famous railroad tycoon James J. Hill. At the time, engineers thought that it would be impossible to build a stone arch bridge for rail traffic. They believed that vibrations from passing trains would cause the stone to crumble." The next time I see a stone arch bridge in the east, I'm going to have to note the date. I thought both the B&O and England built some remarkable stone arch bridges in the mid 1800s because the basic Roman stone arch bridge was the most common design that was known at the time for big viaducts. It sounds like James hired some engineers that were out of touch with bridge design history.

Leo Walding posted
Stone Arch Bridge in Minneapolis under construction in 1883.
[The comments talk about pyramids and ancient inventions of concrete.]

Leo Walding posted
Stone Arch Bridge in Minneapolis. Mississippi River. James J. Hill of the Great Northern RR commissioned the bridge.
Leo Walding The core of engineers removed the right 1/8 of the bridge for a lock!

Minnesota On Our Minds posted
The Great Northern's Stone Arch Bridge and train on the Mississippi River. Minneapolis in the late 1940s.
Dan Krislov: The train is the Chicago Northwestern 400.
Larry Hennis shared
Aaron Grace: Why is there a C&NW train on it? I don't believe they had trackage rights, did they?
[Note the Third Avenue Bridge in the background.]
Dave Bruckelmyer posted
This famous picture may have been posted in the past, but because it holds particular significance to me, I decided to post it (again?). In a publicity photo taken by the Chicago & North Western Railroad, the Twin Cities 400 is strung out across the James J Hill Stone Arch bridge after the train was upgraded with new EMD E-6 diesels in 1941. The Stone Arch bridge is located in Minneapolis, MN where I grew up. I was fortunate to witness the last run of the 400 on July 23, 1963. Myself and a friend, who was also interested in trains, rode our bicycles to east end of the bridge (the end ahead of the locomotives in this picture) to witness the not so celebrated occasion. In fact, we were the only ones along that section of track. I only had a chance to ride the train once on a trip from Minneapolis to St Paul. It was only 11 miles one-way and cost $1.50 round trip, but it gave us a short time to explore the train. We then would catch a different train back to Minneapolis. At the time my friend and I were on a quest to ride every passenger train that served Minneapolis. We rode most of them but some were discontinued before we got to them. We still can say that we rode the 400!

Don Liotta posted
Stone arch bridge crosses the Mississippi River in Minneapolis. Built by the Great Northern railroad, now a pedestrian walkway.