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 ...

References

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External links

* * of previous bridge {{Crossings navbox , structure = Crossings , place =

, 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

See also

References

External links