The Oliver Bridge is a bridge across the Saint Louis River. It was constructed in 1910 as a railway bridge by the Interstate Transfer Railway Company, a Wisconsin corporation, under special federal authorization from the 60th United States Congress. A lower deck carrying road traffic was constructed in 1917 It connects the

Gary – New Duluth Gary – New Duluth is a neighborhood in Duluth, Minnesota, United States. Although called ''Gary–New Duluth'' by most people in the area, and even identified by local traffic signs as being so named, they are two separate neighborhood communit ...

neighborhood in

Duluth , settlement_type = City , nicknames = Twin Ports (with Superior), Zenith City , motto = , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top: urban Duluth skyline; Minnesota ...

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

with the village of Oliver,

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

. The bridge is long and is principally of

steel truss A truss bridge is a bridge whose load-bearing superstructure is composed of a truss, a structure of connected elements, usually forming triangular units. The connected elements (typically straight) may be stressed from tension, compression, o ...

construction. The upper deck carries a single track rail line and a lower deck carries the road connecting Wisconsin Highway 105 to Minnesota State Highway 39. The upper deck was built to allow a

streetcar A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport a ...

line to be constructed from Gary–New Duluth to south Superior connecting the Duluth and Superior streetcar systems. The line was never built and the systems were connected across the

Twin Ports The Duluth MN-WI Metropolitan Area, commonly called the Twin Ports, is a small metropolitan area centered around the cities of Duluth, Minnesota and Superior, Wisconsin. The Twin Ports are located at the western part of Lake Superior (the weste ...

Harbor. On the Oliver side, a section of the bridge was built to swing, allowing passage of large vessels despite the river only being navigable for a few miles upstream of the bridge. Only one vessel is ever thought to have used this facility, a ferry excursion boat operating between the Duluth harbor and the Fond du Lac neighborhood of Duluth. The ferry service ceased in the 1930s and the swing section has not operated since. The road deck was originally a wooden deck. Modernization came in 2000 when both states' transportation departments (

WisDOT The Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) is a governmental agency of the U.S. state of Wisconsin responsible for planning, building and maintaining the state's highways. It is also responsible for planning transportation in the state ...

and

Mn/DOT The Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT, ) oversees transportation by all modes including land, water, air, rail, walking and bicycling in the U.S. state of Minnesota. The cabinet-level agency is responsible for maintaining the state ...

) cooperated with the

Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range Railway The Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range Railway (DM&IR) , informally known as the Missabe Road, was a railroad operating in northern Minnesota and Wisconsin that used to haul iron ore and later taconite to the Great Lakes ports of Duluth and Two Harbor ...

to jointly fund a reconstruction of the roadway surface, which is constructed of a stronger steel with a reinforced concrete deck. A weight restriction, which was lowered to one ton as the road deck deteriorated, was then lifted. A pedestrian walkway atop the railway deck fell into disrepair and is no longer usable. The Oliver Bridge is owned by the Canadian National Railway.

References

{{coord, 46, 39, 24, N, 92, 12, 7, W, type:landmark, display=title Swing bridges in the United States Road bridges in Minnesota Bridges completed in 1910 Railroad bridges in Wisconsin Railroad bridges in Minnesota Road-rail bridges in the United States Road bridges in Wisconsin Steel bridges in the United States Buildings and structures in Duluth, Minnesota Buildings and structures in Douglas County, Wisconsin