1885+1923+1999 Trail/NP #9 Bridge over Mississippi River in Minneapolis, MN

1885: (Bridge Hunter)

1923: (Bridge Hunter; Historic Bridges; John Weeks III; Satellite) Bohemian Flats Bridge

1885

Public Domain via BridgeHunter-1885

Marty Bernard posted
Photo from the Minnesota Historical Society
Tom Edwards: NP bridge leaving Railway Transfer in Minneapolis heading east past the University of Minnesota campus and then on to St. Paul. Houses are what was called "Bohemian Flats" in those days.
Dennis DeBruler: Tom Edwards NP obviously upgraded the bridge. And then it got turned into a trail.
https://www.google.com/.../data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4...

From HousesOfWorship via BridgeHunter-1923,
License: Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike (CC BY-SA)

Marty Bernard posted
4. Northern Pacific Bridge under construction, near campus of University, Minneapolis, 1880.
Photographs and captions from the Minnesota Historical Society

Marty Bernard posted
5. Northern Pacific Railway passenger train crossing Mississippi River near University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. circa 1900.
Photographs and captions from the Minnesota Historical Society
Marty Bernard shared
Kenneth Boyum: Amazing!! You can see the arch bridge in the distance.
[A lot of the current bridges did not exist back then.]

1923

John A. Weeks III
"Northern Pacific Bridge #9 is an abandoned railroad bridge that has found new life as a bicycle path. While the rails to trails concept has been around for a number of years, converting a large river bridge for trail usage was a novel idea in the late 1990s. With large numbers of university students walking and riding bicycles, this project has been a major success. The only drawback is that there is no tourist parking available anywhere within reasonable walking distance of the bridge."

John Marvig via BridgeHunter-1923, cropped

This is the alignment of the NP before it was moved further north in 1923.

1896 St Paul Quadrangle @ 1:62,500

The two truss lines of the old bridge were reused by adding additional truss lines in the middle. Historic Bridges says one truss line was added while this report says that two lines were added.

MnDOT report via BridgeHunter-1923, p13
"Feature 2: Innovative reuse of original 1885-1886 pin-connected Pratt deck truss spans in 1922-1924 railroad bridge construction, reinforced with riveted Pratt deck trusses to create two new spans with four truss lines."

John points out that the North Coast Limited logo is still visible on the deck girders. Here we can clearly see the "Coast" part of the logo.

Street View