Sunday, April 3, 2022

1926,1992 Mendota and 1894-1957 Milwaukee RR Bridges over Minnesota River at St. Paul, MN

Mendota: (Bridge Hunter; Historic BridgesJohn A. Weeks III; Satellite)
Milwaukee: (Bridge Hunter; Satellite, abandoned in 1957)

I've learned that the Mississippi river dips south between the downtowns of Minneapolis and St. Paul and it runs through a gorge.

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers St. Paul District posted, cropped
#OTD [Mar 27] in 1942: Local interests request the Corps dredge the Minnesota River to a depth of 9' from the mouth of the river to Savage, MN. This allows Cargill, Northern State Power & Richfield Oil Company to produce supplies for the war effort. #BuildingStrong 📷 Cargill Archives
[In this case, Cargill was a shipbuilder instead of a grain elevator.]
Colin 't Hart: The river wasn’t dredged till 1966-68.
Mike Haase: About 9 ships were built at Port Cargill in WWII, mostly oil tankers because they were flat bottom.
Michael 'Fish' KayeRyan Heath shared
The Milwaukee Road swing bridge opened for Army Corps dredging, below the Mendota Bridge.
Joe Atkins, County Commissioner posted
80 YEARS AGO TODAY. The USS Agawam sailed beneath the Mendota Bridge down the Mississippi on its way to service during WWII.
Built in Savage, Minnesota, the tanker ship launched on May 6, 1943 and eventually joined the famous 7th Fleet in the Pacific.
Photo credit: John Nicholson
Earl Hermann: The Mendota bridge does not cross the Mississippi River. It crosses the Minnesota River!
Curt Ritter: The Minnesota River used to connect to the Mississippi right below Fort Snelling by where the Highway 5 bridge is now. The Minnesota River was rerouted to make it easier to navigate.
Robert Hanson: Over 40 submarines were built in Manitowoc, WI during WWII. Three of which survived and reside in parks/museums today. Mobile, AL, Muskegon. MI and Manitowoc, WI are their locations. LCVPs were built at several locations along the banks of the Great Lakes.
Geoffery Fritz: Found this article after seeing this, answers a lot of questions I’m seeing in the comments. https://www.minnpost.com/.../one-minnesota-contribution.../
Davy David Jones: Duluth MN built ships were send to Chicago to go down a river route to New Orleans. Upper Deck house were added there that were not there so the ships could go under the bridges.
Jim Ritchie: Davy David Jones - thanks for passing along this info .. .. I knew about the Manitowoc submarines and Seneca, Ill built LST ships .. due to Illinois inability to balance a checkbook ( dating back years ) 1930s Illinois River lock and dam modernization had to wait until Federal government was thru updating the Ohio river - timing worked out larger lock chambers needed for the passage of these WW2 era vessels - google cornfield shipyards

Michael 'Fish' Kaye commented on the USACE post
This 1953 aerial photo shows the railroad bridge with the swing span on the Ft. Snelling side of the river. After the removal of the railroad a few years later the corps of engineers dredged a new channel on the Mendota side creating Picnic Island in the mid '60s.

Dennis DeBruler commented on Ryan's share
1951 St Paul West Quadrangle @ 1:24,000

Dennis DeBruler commented on Ryan's share
The railroad was abandoned in 1957. Later, they dug the cutoff channel.
1967 St Paul West Quadrangle @ 1:24,000

Photo via BridgeHunter-mendota
1927 Postcard Curteich CT American Art Image provided by David Shedlock

MnDOT
Comprised of 13 rib-arch main spans of 304 feet each, it was the longest continuous, concrete arch bridge in the world when built in 1926. It represents the work of two important Minnesota engineers: Walter Hall Wheeler and C.A.P. Turner.
The total length of the bridge is 4,119' [DakotaHistory]

Engineering News-Record via Historic Bridges

Travel Sans Borders posted
Taken 1/27/24 in, never really made sense to me, but some semi unincorporated area near MSP. Mendota Bridge for the local crowd.
 
Travel Sans Borders posted
Taken 1/31/24, crazy nice day out. Mendota Bridge.

Historic Bridges provides a link to the contractor's construction photos of this bridge. Unfortunately, I got the dreaded "page not found" when I clicked it. Fortunately, Nathan copied some of the photos. This is one of them.
HistoricBridges, it has several more construction photos

The transverse deck girders that we see today are part of the 1992-94 deck replacement project. The new deck is wider than the original deck.
JohnWeeksIII

Travel Sans Borders posted
Mendota Bridge, taken 11/28/23.
I have lots of pictures of this bridge taken over the years.  This is a great bridge for getting reflections in the springs following heavy snow fall winters (i.e. not his year😂) as the State Park is pretty flat and floods fairly easy.  When lucky, the parking lots provide the best reflections.

Travel Sans Borders posted
2/13/24 Mendota Bridge taken from inside Fort Snelling State Park.

John Weeks commented on the above post
Here is an interesting view of the bridge that is rarely seen.


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