The Hennepin Avenue Bridge is the structure that carries Hennepin County State Aid Highway 52,
Hennepin Avenue
Hennepin Avenue is a major street in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. It runs from Lakewood Cemetery (at West 36th Street), north through the Uptown District of Southwest Minneapolis, through the Virginia Triangle, the former "Bottleneck" a ...
, across the
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it fl ...
in
Minneapolis, Minnesota, at
Nicollet Island
Nicollet Island is an island in the Mississippi River just north of Saint Anthony Falls in central Minneapolis, Minnesota. According to the United States Census Bureau the island has a land area of and a 2000 census population of 144 persons. T ...
. Officially, it is the Father Louis Hennepin Bridge, in honor of the 17th-century explorer
Louis Hennepin
Father Louis Hennepin, O.F.M. baptized Antoine, (; 12 May 1626 – 5 December 1704) was a Belgian Roman Catholic priest and missionary of the Franciscan Recollet order (French: ''Récollets'') and an explorer of the interior of North Amer ...
, who was the first European to see the
Saint Anthony Falls
Saint Anthony Falls, or the Falls of Saint Anthony ( dak, italics=no, Owámniyomni, ) located at the northeastern edge of downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota, is the only natural major waterfall on the Mississippi River. Throughout the mid-to-late 1 ...
, a short distance downriver. Two of the three previous structures have been
suspension bridges, while a third—which existed nearly a century—was composed of
steel arch spans. The original crossing, which opened as a
toll bridge
A toll bridge is a bridge where a monetary charge (or '' toll'') is required to pass over. Generally the private or public owner, builder and maintainer of the bridge uses the toll to recoup their investment, in much the same way as a toll road ...
on January 23, 1855, is believed to have been the first permanent span across the Mississippi at any point. Other bridges were completed in 1876, 1891, and most recently 1990. Today, the bridge's main span is in length.
Image:Hennepin Avenue Bridge 1865.jpg, The original structure circa 1865
Image:Hennepin-Bridge-20080926.jpg, Facing Northeast Minneapolis
Northeast is a defined community in the U.S. city of Minneapolis that is composed of 13 smaller neighborhoods whose street addresses end in "NE". Unofficially it also includes the neighborhoods of the University community which have "NE" addre ...
Image:Hennepin Avenue Bridge-Grain Belt-20081005.JPG, Bridge with Grain Belt
The Corn Belt is a region of the Midwestern United States that, since the 1850s, has dominated corn production in the United States. In the United States, ''corn'' is the common word for maize. More generally, the concept of the Corn Belt con ...
sign (inset)
Image:Fed-Minneapolis-20080926.jpg, Facing the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis
Federal or foederal (archaic) may refer to:
Politics
General
*Federal monarchy, a federation of monarchies
*Federation, or ''Federal state'' (federal system), a type of government characterized by both a central (federal) government and states or ...
See also
*
List of bridges documented by the Historic American Engineering Record in Minnesota
*
List of crossings of the Upper Mississippi River
This is a list of all current and notable former bridges or other crossings of the Upper Mississippi River which begins at the Mississippi River's source and extends to its confluence with the Ohio River at Cairo, Illinois.
Crossings Minnesot ...
References
*
*
External links
*
* of previous bridge
{{Crossings navbox
, structure = Crossings
, place =
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it fl ...
, bridge = Hennepin Avenue Bridge
, bridge signs =
, upstream =
Minneapolis BNSF Rail Bridge
, upstream signs =
, downstream =
Third Avenue Bridge
, downstream signs =
Bridges completed in 1855
Bridges completed in 1876
Bridges completed in 1891
Bridges completed in 1990
Historic American Engineering Record in Minnesota
History of Minneapolis
Bridges in Minneapolis
Bridges over the Mississippi River
Suspension bridges in the United States
Road bridges in Minnesota
1855 establishments in Minnesota Territory
Former toll bridges in Minnesota
Towers in Mississippi
Concrete bridges in the United States
Metal bridges in the United States