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St. Paul Union Pacific Vertical-lift Rail Bridge

1913 establishments in MinnesotaBridges completed in 1913Bridges in Saint Paul, MinnesotaBridges over the Mississippi RiverChicago Great Western Railway
Railroad bridges in MinnesotaUnion Pacific Railroad bridgesVertical lift bridges in Minnesota
St. Paul Union Pacific Vertical lift Rail Bridge
St. Paul Union Pacific Vertical lift Rail Bridge

The St. Paul Union Pacific Vertical-lift Rail Bridge is a vertical-lift bridge that spans the Mississippi River in downtown St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is one of only three vertical-lift bridges along the Mississippi River, along with the Hastings Rail Bridge in Hastings, Minnesota, and the Wabash Bridge in Hannibal, Missouri. It was designed by Waddell & Harrington and built in 1913. In 1925, the north end of the bridge was raised about 16 feet (4.9 m) to tie in with tracks that served the St. Paul Union Depot yard. The vertical-lift span has 105-foot-high (32 m) towers, and the electrical lift system was built with a possible 45-foot (14 m) elevation. However, by 1973, the amount of lift was reduced to 37 feet (11 m) because of aging of the equipment. The bridge was originally built by the Chicago Great Western Railroad, which later became part of the Chicago and North Western Transportation Company. The Robert Street Bridge, built later in 1926, had to be carefully engineered around the railroad bridge. In April 1997, high water on the Mississippi River reached the bottom of the span. The Union Pacific Railroad spotted a train of hopper cars laden with rocks on the bridge to help anchor it and keep it from being washed away. In 2021, Union Pacific proposed demolishing the bridge and building a replacement with a drawbridge design.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article St. Paul Union Pacific Vertical-lift Rail Bridge (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

St. Paul Union Pacific Vertical-lift Rail Bridge
Sam Morgan Regional Trail, Saint Paul Downtown

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N 44.944166666667 ° E -93.088333333333 °
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Robert Street Bridge

Sam Morgan Regional Trail
55146 Saint Paul, Downtown
Minnesota, United States
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St. Paul Union Pacific Vertical lift Rail Bridge
St. Paul Union Pacific Vertical lift Rail Bridge
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Robert Street Bridge
Robert Street Bridge

The Robert Street Bridge is a reinforced concrete multiple-arch bridge that spans the Mississippi River in downtown Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. The bridge is notable for its complex design that was required to accommodate river traffic, the St. Paul Union Pacific Vertical-lift Rail Bridge crossing underneath it at an angle, and roadways on the downtown side of St. Paul. The bridge is also notable for a monumental reinforced concrete rainbow arch. The rainbow arch not only provides 62 feet of headroom above the river, but also provides a strong aesthetic focus. It was built in 1924–1926 by Fegles Construction Company, Ltd. and designed by Toltz, King & Day. The bridge was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1989. The bridge as well as Robert Street itself are named after Captain Louis Roberts, a notable French Canadian river boat captain, businessman and early settler of Saint Paul, MN. The bridge was commissioned in the early 1920s to replace a wrought-iron span, originally built in 1884-1885, that had become obsolete due to increasing traffic. The engineers who designed the bridge had several obstacles to work around. The tracks of the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha Railway, St. Paul Union Depot, and the Chicago Great Western Railway mainline were factors. The engineers also had to provide adequate clearance above the river, as defined by the United States War Department at the time. Finally, the bridge had to clear Second Street in downtown St. Paul and work through a busy manufacturing district at the south end. The location of nearly every pier was dictated by these requirements. As a result, the bridge was designed with a combination of barrel-arch and rib-arch flanking spans and a rainbow arch for the central span. One of the members of the crew building the bridge was Warren Burger, future Chief Justice of the United States.

Wabasha Street Bridge
Wabasha Street Bridge

The Wabasha Street Bridge is a segmental bridge that spans the Mississippi River in downtown Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. It was named Wabasha Street Freedom Bridge in 2002, to commemorate the first anniversary of the September 11 attacks. It actually consists of two separate bridges, one for northbound and one for southbound traffic. The use of a concrete segmental box girder bridge provided a construction advantage because no falsework needed to be built beneath the bridge. The bridge opened to traffic in 1998; some decorative elements were not completed until late 2001. It was built by Lunda Construction Company and was designed by Toltz, King, Duvall, Anderson & Associates, Inc. The new bridge replaced an earlier structure that was built in 1889. The new bridge was built with pedestrians in mind. It features 11-foot-wide (3.4 m) sidewalks, six overlooks at the pier locations, and a stairway down to Raspberry Island. The color scheme of the bridge was also planned to reflect the architectural heritage of Saint Paul, with a soft buff color (the color of sandstone) to reflect the colors used in many downtown Saint Paul buildings. The color of terracotta roofs in the city was used to select the color of the railings, and the green patina of the Saint Paul Cathedral is echoed in the ornamental color of the overlooks. The new bridge has won several awards, including the Federal Highway Administration 1998 Excellence in Highway Design Award and the Minnesota Society of Professional Engineers 2001 Seven Wonders of Engineering in Minnesota award. The pedestrian walkways are on the outside of the bridge. There is a gap of 8.7 feet (2.7 m) between the two bridge decks, between the southbound bridge and the northbound bridge. In July 2011, a man jumped over the inner railing, on the side not designated for pedestrians, thinking a landing was on the other side. Instead, he fell 55 feet (17 m) and landed on Raspberry Island underneath the bridge. He survived the fall but was critically injured.To mark the Minnesota Senate's vote to allow same sex marriage in Minnesota, mayor Chris Coleman issued a proclamation on May 13, 2013, temporarily renaming the bridge "Wabasha Street Freedom to Marry Bridge" and ordered dozens of rainbow flags to be flown on the bridge.