Mississippi National River and Recreation Area

The Wakota Bridge is a ten-lane bridge carrying Interstate 494 over the Mississippi River between South St. Paul and Newport, Minnesota, United States. It was completed in 2010, replacing a four-lane span built in 1959. The name was given to the previous span in the early 1960s, and is derived from the two counties it connects, Washington and Dakota. Lunda Construction Company won the bid to build a new five-lane west-bound span, remove the existing bridge, and build a new five-lane east-bound span, which was completed in 2010. It is the widest bridge in Minnesota in number of lanes, along with the I-35W Saint Anthony Falls Bridge in Minneapolis.

Newport is a city in Washington County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 3,797 at the 2020 census. According to 2022 census estimates, the city is estimated to have a population of 4,820.

Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy (TIZA) was a K-8 school in Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota named after Tarek ibn Ziyad, the muslim general of medieval Morocco who entered Gibraltar in 711 CE on behalf of the Umayyad Caliphate and defeated the Visigoths. The school is sponsored by Islamic Relief USA. The school has a primarily Muslim student body and has been embroiled in a number of controversies regarding the separation of church and state. The school has a waiting list of 1,500 students. Around 80% of students are English language learners. Despite this, the school has one of the highest reading scores on standardized tests in the state. As of July 2011 TiZA has been shut down by order of the Minnesota Education Department, due to lack of an approved charter school sponsor.

The Serbian Home is a two-story brick building, that was built in 1924 in South Saint Paul in the U.S. state of Minnesota. It was built as a community center for Serbian immigrants who worked in the meatpacking industry. It served as a museum respecting the multitude of ethnic groups who have made the city their home until 2020, when it was purchased and renovated by Serbian immigrant Aleksandar Stojmenovic to serve as an event center.

The Rock Island Swing Bridge was a swing bridge that spanned the Mississippi River between Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota, and St. Paul Park, Minnesota. It was also known as the Newport Rail Bridge, as it had a spur to Newport, Minnesota, and J.A.R. bridge, after previous owners Joan and Al Roman of Chicago. It was one of the few double-decker bridges on the Mississippi, with the top level formerly used for railroad traffic and the bottom level formerly used as a road crossing. It also was one of a few toll bridges in Minnesota, and one of the last remaining ones. It closed to rail traffic in 1980, and road traffic in 1999, when the toll was 75 cents. After closing, the bridge sat dormant in the open position for 10 years before being partially demolished in 2009. It was converted into a recreational pier, which was open to the public on June 11, 2011.

South St. Paul is a city in Dakota County, Minnesota, United States, immediately south and southeast of St. Paul and east of West St. Paul. The population was 20,759 at the 2020 census. The town was a major meat-packing location, and many residents are descended from immigrants of Southern European and Eastern European heritage, who came to work in the meat-packing plants in the early twentieth century. A post office called "South St. Paul" has been in operation since 1888. The city was named based on its location, south of St. Paul.

The Stockyards Exchange is a building in South St. Paul, Minnesota, United States, built in 1887 by the recently formed Union Stock Yards Company of Omaha. The building housed businesses associated with the nearby stockyards, which later became the largest stockyards in the United States. It also housed a post office, city offices, and the city's first bank, Stockyards National Bank.The stockyards were organized in 1886 by Alpheus Beede Stickney, who was the president of the Chicago Great Western Railway. The stockyards attracted four major meatpacking plants, including Swift & Company in 1897 and Armour and Company in 1919. During the World War II years, the stockyards operated at their peak. Due to changing market forces and the decentralization of the industry, the stockyards declined during the 1960s and 1970s. Swift closed their plant in 1969, while Armour closed their plant in the 1970s. In 1976, the South St. Paul City Council gave its Housing and Redevelopment Authority permission to buy the building. Colonial Properties bought the build in October 1979, but two months later, vandals caused major damage to the building by flooding it with fire hoses in the attic. The building was later purchased by a private developer, who was unable to raise the money to finish the renovation as scheduled. A couple opened the building in 1998 as the Castle Hotel, but it was only open a year. The building is now able to be reserved for private events.

St. Stefan's Romanian Orthodox Church is a historic church built in 1924 in South St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It was built for Romanian American immigrants who worked in the meatpacking industry. It continues to serve as a Romanian Orthodox Church.. The patriarchal chair is currently held by Daniel I, Archbishop of Bucharest, Metropolitan of Muntenia and Dobrudja (former Ungro-Wallachia) and Patriarch of All of the Romanian Orthodox Church.[

South St. Paul Secondary (also known as South St. Paul High School) is a public high school in South St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is part of the South St. Paul Public Schools district, and is no longer an International Baccalaureate World School after changing in 2023.

Inver Grove Heights is a city in Dakota County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 35,801 at the 2020 census. The city was formed on March 9, 1965, with the merger of the village of Inver Grove and Inver Grove Township.It is one of 186 cities and townships in the seven-county Minneapolis-Saint Paul metropolitan area. Inver Grove Heights is 9 miles (14 km) southeast of Saint Paul; nearby communities are South St. Paul, West St. Paul, Sunfish Lake, Eagan, Newport, and Saint Paul Park (the last two across the Mississippi River).

St. Paul Park or Saint Paul Park is a city in Washington County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 5,279 at the 2010 census. It is on the east bank of the Mississippi River, five miles (8 km) downstream from St. Paul.

Pigs Eye Lake is a riverine wetland that covers 628 acres in Ramsey County, in the U.S. state of Minnesota. The Mdewakanton Village of Kaposia was located on the northern end until 1837 when the village was moved across the Mississippi to what is now South St. Paul. The 1930 construction of lock and dam #2 in Hastings down river, is responsible for its size and depth. The wetland is part of what the Army Corps of Engineers has designated as pond 2 of the upper Mississippi waterway. It is south of downtown St Paul on the east side of the river. Battle Creek enters the wetland from the northeast. In the 1960s the Army Corps of Engineers dredged two channels into it. One, out of the southwest corner, went due west out to the main river channel. The second went due south for barge traffic. Along that south channel the Army Corps created an industrial park with spoils from dredging the main channel. That portion of the industrial park has moorings for several barges at a time. In planning for the future the Army Corps built a levee defining the north side of the industrial park thereby creating an area for future dredging spoils. Ramsey County Parks has requested that the County Commissioners approve the Army Corps of Engineers putting 400,000 cubic yards of river dredgings into the wetland to create islands.Pigs Eye Lake was named after Pierre "Pig's Eye" Parrant, an early pioneer who had one eye that had been injured.The 100 acres of Pigs eye island that separates the wetland from the main barge channel is home to a large Heron rookery. Prior to Army Corps depositing the dredging in the 60's the wetland's eastern side had large Yellow-headed blackbird and Red-winged blackbird populations that are now gone.