Robert Street Bridge over Mississippi in St. Paul, MN

(Bridge Hunter, Historic Bridges, John Weeks, 3D Satellite)

The content concerning the UP/C&NW/CGW lift bridge has been moved to here. Many of those photos include this bridge in the background.

John A. Weeks III, downstream (eastern) elevation from the south bank riverwalk

John A. Weeks III
The photo above shows a good view of the main span rainbow arch. Notice that there is steel work under the bridge deck to help support the roadway. Also notice the Great Western railroad lift bridge behind the Robert Street Bridge. The railroad bridge was built many years before the Robert Street Bridge.

 Both road and railroad truss bridges were built in 1885.

Journal of the Western Society of Engineers, Volume 8, p 438
The draw is operated by steam.

Dan Ashbach posted three photos with the comment:

Robert Street Bridge.

The first bridge here opened in 1886 and served until the early 1920s, when a higher bridge was required to accommodate a raised railroad platform at St. Paul Union Depot. Designed by Toltz, King and Day of St. Paul, the bridge is a type known as a “rainbow arch,” so named because the arches of the main span raise above the roadway like, well, rainbows. This form was dictated by the demands of the site: the bridge’s roadway needed to reach Kellogg Mall at grade but also had to clear the elevated tracks of the adjacent Great Western Lift Bridge (1913) and be high enough to permit the passage of riverboats. The bridge, which has art deco touches, was rebuilt in 1989 by the same firm, now known as TKDA, that had designed it 65 years earlier.

Tom Lyman shared

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Historic Bridges
ca. 1895 Photo of Previous Bridge
Source: Minneapolis Photo Collection of Hennepin County Library

Street View

The railroad bridge was replaced in 1913 and the road bridge was replaced in 1926. The road bridge was rehabilitated in 1989 and added to the National Register of Historic Places. The concrete pony arch [BridgeHunter] or rainbow arch [HistoricBridges, JohnWeeks] span (navigation channel span) is 264'. The two pony arches are not reinforced with rebar. Instead, a steel arch was built, which was then encased by concrete. [HistoricBridges, JohnWeeks, BridgeHunter]

One feature of the bridge is that it appears to fit so well to its surroundings. Perhaps the reason for that is that the bridge was so difficult to fit around all the obstacles at that location. This includes having to be high enough for river boat traffic, low enough to meet the low grade south of the river without having too steep of grade (as required by street cars), it has to be high enough for trains to pass under, yet it had to match the height of Kellogg Blvd. The result is that the bridge design was dictated by each of these constraints. [JohnWeeks]

Kevin Piper posted
Two SOO GP30's cross the Mississippi River at St. Paul, MN, on 8-16-74. PHOTOGRAPHER UNKNOWN

John Harker posted
Moments after departing from St Paul Union Depot at 6:55 pm in August 1970, Milw train #5 the Morning Hiawatha was captured in this scene passing under the Robert Street Bridge. It was enroute to the Minneapolis station for a scheduled arrival at 7:20 pm. William J Brennan took this original Kodachrome slide which I scanned and edited for this image. Also, an image of his slide was published in the Morning Sun book, Milwaukee Road Through Passenger Service, Volume 2 by Greg Stout and John Schultz. John Harker collection

The river has been really low in Summer 2021. Plus this provides a view of the upstream side of the bridge.

Mary C Kennedy posted, cropped
Messy shoreline on the low Miss in downtown St Paul.

uslakes