Hennepin Avenue Bridge

Hennepin Avenue Bridge
Hennepin Avenue Bridge as it appears today.
Carries	6 lanes of Hennepin Avenue (CSAH 52)
Crosses	Mississippi River
Locale	Minneapolis, Minnesota
Maintained by	Hennepin County
ID number	27636
Design	Suspension bridge
Total length	1037 feet
Width	134 feet
Longest span	625 feet (190 meters)
Clearance below	37 feet
Opened	1990
Bridges over the Mississippi in Minneapolis/St. Paul. Hennepin Ave. Bridge is in the top half of the image between Minneapolis BNSF and 3rd Ave. Bridge
Coordinates	44°59′07″N 93°15′50″W

The Hennepin Avenue Bridge is the structure that carries Hennepin County State Aid Highway 52, Hennepin Avenue, across the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Minnesota at Nicollet Island. Officially, it is the Father Louis Hennepin Bridge, in honor of the 17th-century explorer Louis Hennepin, who was the first European to discover the Saint Anthony Falls 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 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 625 feet (190 meters) in length, making it rather small by modern standards.

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  The original structure circa 1865

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  Facing Northeast Minneapolis

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  Bridge with Grain Belt sign (inset)

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  Facing the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis

See also

• List of crossings of the Upper Mississippi River

References

• Costello, Mary Charlotte (2002). Climbing the Mississippi River Bridge by Bridge, Volume Two: Minnesota. Cambridge, MN: Adventure Publications. ISBN 0-9644518-2-4. 

External links

• Father Louis Hennepin Bridge at Structurae