The Bruce Vento Regional Trail is a

rail trail A rail trail or railway walk is a shared-use path on a Right of way#Rail right of way, railway right of way. Rail trails are typically constructed after a railway has been abandoned and the track has been removed but may also share the rail corr ...

in the cities of Vadnais Heights, Gem Lake, Maplewood, and

Saint Paul Paul, also named Saul of Tarsus, commonly known as Paul the Apostle and Saint Paul, was a Christian apostle ( AD) who spread the teachings of Jesus in the first-century world. For his contributions towards the New Testament, he is generally ...

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

, USA. The trail occupies an abandoned

Burlington Northern Railroad The Burlington Northern Railroad was a United States–based railroad company formed from a merger of four major U.S. railroads. Burlington Northern operated between 1970 and 1995. Its historical lineage begins in the earliest days of railroad ...

corridor and intersects with the Gateway State Trail in Maplewood and continues to just east of

Lake Phalen Lake Phalen is an urban lake located in Saint Paul, Minnesota and in its suburb of Maplewood. It is one of the largest lakes in Saint Paul and is the centerpiece of the Phalen Regional Park System. The lake drains into the Mississippi River afte ...

in Saint Paul. South of the lake, it continues along Phalen Boulevard and through Swede Hollow to its terminus near Seventh Street. Another spur off of Phalen Boulevard continues west, going over a long bridge that crosses very active railroad tracks, and terminates at Interstate 35E. The trail is approximately long from its northern end just north of

Interstate 694 Interstate 694 (I-694) is an east–west auxiliary Interstate Highway located in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area in the US state of Minnesota. The western terminus of the route is at its junction with I-94, I-494, and US ...

to the southern terminus near Seventh Street and Payne Avenue. The extension along Phalen Boulevard is . Most of the trail was built in the late 1990s. The section along Phalen Boulevard was paved in late 2005. The trail leads through an abandoned rail corridor and is mostly off the road. In some places it goes through residential neighborhoods. There are some views of Lake Phalen through the trees. The section in Swede Hollow is particularly scenic where it runs through a ravine except for the presence of out-of-scale billboards. The south end of the trail features the Seventh Street Improvement Arches. This is a historic bridge built to carry the St. Paul and Duluth Railroad underneath Seventh Street. North beyond this are abandoned factories that belong to 3M. The Phalen Boulevard extension goes through more industrial and office areas, but at the top of the bridge over Westminster Junction, there is a historical exhibit with descriptions of how the railroads developed along with the city. The trail is named for U.S. Representative

Bruce Vento Bruce Frank Vento (October 7, 1940 – October 10, 2000) was an American educator and politician, a Democratic-Farmer-Labor member of the United States House of Representatives from 1977 until his death in 2000, representing . Early life Vent ...

. This former Burlington Northern Railroad corridor was formerly used by the

Northern Pacific Railway The Northern Pacific Railway was an important American transcontinental railroad that operated across the northern tier of the Western United States, from Minnesota to the Pacific Northwest between 1864 and 1970. It was approved and chartered b ...

and was originally built as the St. Paul and Duluth Railroad.

References

Minnesota Inline Skate Club - Bruce Vento Regional Trail

Ramsey County Parks and Recreation: Bruce Vento Regional Trail

Ramsey County Regional Trails
{{Twin Cities Trails Geography of Saint Paul, Minnesota Protected areas of Ramsey County, Minnesota Rail trails in Minnesota Regional parks in Minnesota

See also

References