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Washington Avenue (Minneapolis)

Streets in Minneapolis

Washington Avenue is a major thoroughfare in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. Starting north of Lowry Avenue, North Washington Avenue runs straight south, with Interstate 94 running alongside it until just south of West Broadway, when the freeway turns to the west. The street continues running straight until just south of Plymouth Avenue, where it turns in a southeasterly direction heading for Downtown Minneapolis. It forms the main thoroughfare through the Warehouse District. The scenery changes at Hennepin Avenue, where the designation changes to South Washington Avenue. This area, once known as the Gateway District, was heavily affected by urban renewal policies of the 1950s and 60s, destroying what had at one point been the heart of the city. Dozens of city blocks were bulldozed and replaced with modern glass structures - or in many cases, surface parking lots. The portion of the street from Hennepin to what is now Interstate 35W was widened and a median was added. Further changes occurred to the east of the Interstate. Washington used to turn at the Seven Corners intersection (where Washington meets Cedar Avenue) and continue across the old Washington Avenue Bridge into Southeast Minneapolis. However, the old bridge was replaced in the 1960s with a new one which meets Washington east of the Mississippi River but doesn't connect with Washington west of it, instead connecting to a short freeway stub into downtown. There is a one-block portion of the old alignment between Cedar and 19th Avenues that is branded as Washington Avenue, but to continue east of the river, one must travel down Cedar one block and turn east at 3rd Street and get on an entrance ramp to the bridge. East of the river, Washington Avenue Southeast acts as a major thoroughfare through the University of Minnesota campus; a portion of this section has been converted to a transit mall to facilitate the METRO Green Line, opened in June 2014, along with METRO bus service which ran on Washington for decades until the reconfiguration. The street continues east for six blocks before ending at SE University Avenue; the area east of Harvard Street comprises the Stadium Village district.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Washington Avenue (Minneapolis) (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors).

Washington Avenue (Minneapolis)
North Washington Avenue, Minneapolis Near North

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Latitude Longitude
N 44.990555555556 ° E -93.280833333333 °
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10 Av N

North Washington Avenue
55411 Minneapolis, Near North
Minnesota, United States
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North Loop, Minneapolis
North Loop, Minneapolis

The North Loop, also commonly called The Warehouse District, is a neighborhood of the Central community of Minneapolis, Minnesota that was Minneapolis’s main commercial district during the city's years as a midwestern shipping hub. Although only a little commercial shipping is still done in the neighborhood, the historic warehouses still dominate the neighborhood. Some of these buildings have been repurposed into restaurants, shops, and apartments. Because of this identity, the neighborhood is commonly known as the Warehouse District. It includes the Minneapolis Warehouse Historic District which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The North Loop is located northwest of the central business district between downtown Minneapolis and the Mississippi River. Streets in the North Loop are oriented to be parallel to the river, which means that they run at a 45-degree angle relative to the grid of the rest of the city. Although the neighborhood technically extends further to the south, the main residential and commercial area of the North Loop is roughly a rectangle bounded by the railroad tracks as Cedar Lake Trail (in the southeast), Plymouth Avenue (in the northwest), the elevated 4th street freeway entrance/exit in the southwest, and the Mississippi River in the northeast. Washington Avenue is the main thoroughfare through the neighborhood. The James I. Rice Park, which is in the northeast portion of the neighborhood along the river, is popular with residents during the summer months. The bike trail and West River Parkway that runs through the park are part of the Grand Rounds Scenic Byway. The park added a playground in 2010 located where 4th Ave North intersects with West River Parkway.

Metro (Minnesota)
Metro (Minnesota)

Metro (styled as METRO) is a transit network in Minnesota serving the cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul. It also provides service to some suburban areas. As of 2021 the system consists of two light rail lines (Blue and Green Lines) and four bus transit lines (Orange Line, Red Line, A and C Lines) all of which are operated by the local public transit company: Metro Transit. The five lines connect Downtown Minneapolis and St Paul with the Bloomington, Minneapolis-St Paul International Airport, Roseville, Richfield, Burnsville and Brooklyn Center. Prior to August 17, 2019, service along the entire length of the Green Line operated 24/7, the only one of 22 light rail systems in the United States to do so, but a common practice on some heavy rail lines such as the New York City Subway and PATH. The service gap from 2 a.m. to 4 a.m. was replaced by bus service. Metro Transit also provides 24/7 service between the stations serving the Lindbergh and Humphrey terminals of MSP Airport; the remainder of the Blue Line operates from 3:29 a.m. to 1:54 a.m. Monday through Thursday, and 24 hours a day from 3:29 a.m. on Friday morning to 1:54 a.m. on Sunday morning.In the 1970s, roughly contemporaneous with the construction of Washington D.C.'s Metro system and San Francisco's Bay Area Rapid Transit, the newly formed Metropolitan Council contemplated the creation of a similar mass transit for the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area, but the idea was eventually abandoned due to opposition from the Minnesota Legislature. For the next few decades, there were repeated proposals to build light rail along several corridors, particularly the University Avenue corridor between downtown Minneapolis and Saint Paul (the present Green Line), but the idea of light rail only gained steam in the late 1990s. In 1999, the Minnesota Legislature approved funding for the first line (the present Blue Line) along Hiawatha Avenue (initially named the Hiawatha Line) in south Minneapolis, which opened in 2004. In 2011, in anticipation of the opening of the Red Line and Green Line, and in order to help passengers better identify with each of the routes, Metro Transit announced that the system would be rebranded and each line assigned a unique color. The first phase of the Red Line opened in mid-2013, and the first phase of the Green Line (also known as the Central Corridor) in mid-2014. Extensions are planned to bring the system into the western metro area, with construction anticipated near the end of the decade.

Plymouth Avenue Bridge
Plymouth Avenue Bridge

The Plymouth Avenue Bridge is a segmental bridge that spans the Mississippi River in Minneapolis. It was built in 1983 and was designed by Van Doren-Hazard-Stallings. The construction of this bridge was unique, for it was the first segmental concrete girder bridge built in Minnesota. This method of design uses a "form traveler" that shapes the concrete as it is built out from the piers. This avoided the use of falsework and avoided impeding river traffic. The concrete is also engineered to be salt-resistant by the use of post-tensioning. Tubes run through the concrete structure carrying strands of cable. With tension on the cables, the structure is designed to be under compression. This prevents cracks and hinders the intrusion of salt water. Since then, other bridges in Minnesota have used this construction method, including the I-35W Saint Anthony Falls Bridge in Minneapolis, the Wabasha Street Bridge in downtown St. Paul, and the Wakota Bridge in South St. Paul. The original bridge at this location was a wooden Howe truss design, built in 1873. It was built when Minneapolis, then only on the west side of the river, consolidated with the city of St. Anthony, on the east side of the river. As part of the merger, Minneapolis agreed to build two bridges, one upstream of the Hennepin Avenue Bridge and one downstream. That bridge was replaced in 1886 with an iron truss bridge. It was remodeled in 1913 and then raised in 1953 for more clearance. The bridge was closed in 1981 because the floor beams were deteriorated by corrosion over the years. The current bridge was constructed two years later. On Friday, October 22, 2010, the Plymouth Avenue Bridge was closed indefinitely "as a precaution, pending further investigation after a routine inspection discovered corrosion on cables that run through the bridge." The bridge was reopened to foot traffic on Thursday, January 6, 2011, after engineers determined that the bridge was safe for pedestrian and bicycle use. Use by vehicular traffic was not allowed until corroded cables could be replaced, a project that, following several delays, was completed as of August 9, 2013.

Traffic Zone Center for Visual Art
Traffic Zone Center for Visual Art

The Traffic Zone Center for Visual Art (TZCVA) is an artist cooperative located in the historic Warehouse District of downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. Founded in 1993, TZCVA was established to create an artist-owned and managed building that provides stable, safe, and affordable studio, teaching and exhibition space for mid-career visual artists. TZCVA is a partnership between Artspace Projects, Inc., a leading national non-profit real estate developer for the arts, and a cooperative of 23 artist-members. TZCVA is housed in a restored six-story Chicago-style limestone warehouse located in the North Loop neighborhood at 250 Third Avenue North, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 55401. The Traffic Zone building is of significant historic and architectural interest and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). Erected in 1886 for the Moline, Milburn and Stoddard Company as a warehouse for storing farm machinery and implements, the building was expanded two years later and converted into a commercial bakery operated by the National Biscuit Company (Nabisco). From 1951 to 1992, it housed an appliance parts business. In 1992, the warehouse was purchased by Artspace Projects with financial assistance from the City of Minneapolis, the McKnight Foundation, the Dayton Hudson Foundation, the General Mills Foundation and other funders. Extensively renovated by LHB Engineers & Architects (Minneapolis), the restored warehouse re-opened in 1995 as the Traffic Zone Center for Visual Art.Members of the TZCVA cooperative have included an eclectic, international mix of painters, photographers, printmakers, conceptual artists, sculptors, book artists, and ceramicists. Many are past recipients of fellowships and grants from the McKnight Foundation (Minneapolis); the Bush Foundation (St. Paul); the Jerome Foundation (New York & St. Paul); the Minnesota State Arts Board (St. Paul); the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, (New York); and the National Endowment for the Arts (Washington, D.C.). As part of its community-oriented educational mission, TZCVA sponsors workshops, classes, presentations, and quarterly exhibitions of contemporary art by local, national, and international painters, sculptors, photographers, printmakers, book artists, and installation artists. Organized by co-op artists and guest curators, these exhibitions are presented in the Traffic Zone Gallery, the cooperative's ground floor exhibition space. TZCVA also hosts semi-annual "Open Studio" events to allow members of the community to meet co-op artists and view and purchase artwork in a studio setting. Current TZCVA artist-members include Harriet Bart, Kristie Bretzke, Perci Chester, David Collins, Lisa Colwell, James Conaway, Jim Dryden, Jil Evans, Bette Globus Goodman, Bonnie Heller, Bruce Hudson-Bogaard, Vesna Kittelson, Paul Ka Yin Kwok, Lisa Nankivil, Jon Neuse, Howard Oransky, Steve Ozone, Rebecca Pavlenko, Patrick Kemal Pryor, Jodi Reeb, Wilber H. Schilling, Harold B. Stone, and Jantje Visscher. Commercial and non-profit building tenants include Artspace Projects, Inc., Graywolf Press, Indulgence Press, James & Mary Laurie Booksellers, Pro-Choice Resources, among others.