1865 D Street under C&NW at Mendota is the oldest bridge in MN

(no Bridge Hunter; no Historic Bridges; Satellite, the trail and the abandoned C&NW are buried under the tree canopy.)

Scott Berglund posted

I took this photo a few days ago while my son and I were exploring the area across the river from Fort Snelling State Park.

This is the Sibley Ferry Stone Arch Bridge, a historic railroad bridge built in 1864–65. It’s one of Minnesota’s oldest surviving railroad bridges and now serves as a scenic walking path.

CJ Bahan: It is in-fact THE oldest bridge in Minnesota..

Craig Cilley: D Street. Entrance to some great fat biking. Just be aware of the muddy trails from the Mendota springs.

Laura Duffey: This bridge is also a trail entrance to Fort Snelling State Park (many people may not realize that the park also includes land on the south side of the Minnesota River).

The train track above it was removed in the 1950s.

Pat Cosgrove: Laura Duffey There are two bridges. One has an active track going over it.

Laura Duffey: Pat Cosgrove Correct. The stone bridge had the old, removed track. The new metal tunnel bridge with the active track (and which you can barely see in your photo) replaced an older wooden bridge which was removed about 20 years ago. Fun fact: if you stomp your feet hard against the ground the new metal tunnel vibrates sound in a really cool way. I feel compelled to do that every time I go through it

I used this photo on Google Maps to confirm that I found the correct location.

Ben Zvan, Aug 2013

This view shows the "metal tunnel" mentioned by Laura above.

Street View, May 2023

Caleb Spooner commented on Scott's post
This tunnel was how you got to the old river road, which used to go out on the (then) peninsula which is (now) Picnic Island. The main channel used to go around that peninsula but it was tight curves and hard for boats to navigate. That, and the floods in the early '60's caused the Army Corp of Engineers to cut a new channel across the entire Mendota side, cutting off the peninsula and making it a part of the western shore, where it's now known as Picnic Island. The old channel is now an oxbow lake. There used to be businesses like boat rentals and the River Road Club, kinda where Mpls Rock & Roll started. There was a railroad line that crossed it and a swing bridge that ran trains up along the western side to Minnehaha Falls. All of this is gone now, the businesses, the old River Road, map changed forever. If you look at google maps you can see the old channel around Picnic Island and the new channel that cut it all off from the Mendota side. Hard to believe they could move that much earth! Here is an aerial pic of the area back in 1937 with the tunnel marked.

Caleb Spooner commented on Scott's post
And here's the aerial pic from 1970, with the new channel, tunnel marked.

1967/69 St Paul West Quad @ 24,000