Main Street History: Minneapolis' Washington Avenue Bridge

MINNEAPOLIS — An average University of Minnesota-Twin Cities student might transverse the Mississippi River over 100 times over the course of a school semester.

Students can do it with ease, shielded from the bitter winter wind, thanks to the Washington Avenue Bridge, which connects the campus' east and west banks. The signature feature of the double-decker bridge — besides its bridge Gophers' colors and logos — is the enclosed walkway spanning the entire

The 1,130-foot-long, six-span bridge is unique in that it carries pedestrians on top and cars below. And since 2014, the bridge has carried the light rail on the Metro Transit Green Line, which brought the city's light rail system into St. Paul.

The addition of the light rail was fitting because the original Washington Avenue Bridge, completed in 1884, was built to create an "interurban trolley line" between Minneapolis and Saint Paul. Like the modern Green Line, the trolley line connected the two downtowns via University Avenue and Washington Avenue in December.

The bridge began to deteriorate, however, under the weight of modern automobiles. And its days were numbered in the 1950s when enrollment at the University of Minnesota exploded and officials were hoping to expand its campus across the Mississippi River with a new pedestrian bridge.

Why expand across the river? Because space was limited on the east bank. The neighborhood adjacent to Dinkytown was full of homeowners with serious political clout.

Indeed, Prospect Park was home to university professors and Hubert Humphrey, according to research done during a national register evaluation.

Ultimately, the university found success in a plan to build across the river and create what is now known as the west bank campus. But the old bridge had to be torn down and angled further south to reach the west bank.

In 1961, New York Times wrote that "The University of Minnesota has divided itself, amoeba-like, by leaping the Mississippi River in search of expansion space."

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