The St. Paul Union Pacific Vertical-lift Rail Bridge is a vertical-lift bridge that spans 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 f ...

in downtown

St. Paul, Minnesota Saint Paul (abbreviated St. Paul) is the capital of the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Ramsey County. Situated on high bluffs overlooking a bend in the Mississippi River, Saint Paul is a regional business hub and the center o ...

, United States. It is one of only three vertical-lift bridges along the Mississippi River, along with the Hastings Rail Bridge in

Hastings, Minnesota Hastings is a city mostly in Dakota County, Minnesota, of which it is the county seat, with a portion in Washington County, Minnesota. It is near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi, Vermillion, and St. Croix River (Wisconsin-M ...

, and the

Wabash Bridge __NOTOC__ The Wabash Bridge carries one railroad track across the Mississippi River between Hannibal, Missouri, and Pike County, Illinois. Built by the Wabash Railroad, the bridge is today owned by the Norfolk Southern Railway. On May 3, 1982, t ...

in Hannibal, Missouri. It was designed by

Waddell & Harrington Waddell & Harrington was an American engineering company that designed bridges from 1907 to 1915. It was formed in 1907 as a partnership of John Alexander Low Waddell (1854–1938) and John Lyle Harrington (1868–1942) and was based in Kansas C ...

and built in 1913. In 1925, the north end of the bridge was raised about to tie in with tracks that served the St. Paul Union Depot yard. The vertical-lift span has towers, and the electrical lift system was built with a possible elevation. However, by 1973, the amount of lift was reduced to 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 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 ...

, 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 The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...

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.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Paul Union Pacific Vertical Lift Rail Bridge 1913 establishments in Minnesota Bridges completed in 1913 Union Pacific Vertical Lift Rail Bridges over the Mississippi River Chicago Great Western Railway Railroad bridges in Minnesota Union Pacific Railroad bridges Vertical lift bridges in Minnesota

See also

References