The Stewart Creek Bridge or Bridge L6007 is a stone

arch bridge An arch bridge is a bridge with abutments at each end shaped as a curved arch. Arch bridges work by transferring the weight of the bridge and its structural load, loads partially into a horizontal thrust restrained by the abutments at either si ...

in the Smithville neighborhood of

Duluth, Minnesota Duluth ( ) is a Port, port city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of St. Louis County, Minnesota, St. Louis County. Located on Lake Superior in Minnesota's Arrowhead Region, the city is a hub for cargo shipping. The population ...

, United States. It was built around 1925 as part of the scenic Skyline Parkway overlooking the city. With . The Stewart Creek Bridge was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1989 under the name Bridge No. L-6007 for its state-level significance in the theme of engineering. It was nominated for being the most picturesque stone arch road bridge in design and setting in Minnesota. The Stewart Creek Bridge is built of locally quarried, dark green

gabbro Gabbro ( ) is a phaneritic (coarse-grained and magnesium- and iron-rich), mafic intrusive igneous rock formed from the slow cooling magma into a holocrystalline mass deep beneath the Earth's surface. Slow-cooling, coarse-grained gabbro is ch ...

, which is abundant in the Duluth area. The single-span arch over a deep

ravine A ravine is a landform that is narrower than a canyon and is often the product of streambank erosion. Ravines are typically classified as larger in scale than gullies, although smaller than valleys. Ravines may also be called a cleuch, dell, ...

is built on

rubble Rubble is broken stone, of irregular size, shape and texture; undressed especially as a filling-in. Rubble naturally found in the soil is known also as 'brash' (compare cornbrash)."Rubble" def. 2., "Brash n. 2. def. 1. ''Oxford English Dictionar ...

abutment An abutment is the substructure at the ends of a bridge span or dam supporting its superstructure. Single-span bridges have abutments at each end that provide vertical and lateral support for the span, as well as acting as retaining walls ...

s, springing about above grade and rising over a span of . The rubble

spandrel A spandrel is a roughly triangular space, usually found in pairs, between the top of an arch and a rectangular frame, between the tops of two adjacent arches, or one of the four spaces between a circle within a square. They are frequently fil ...

walls continue back in straight lines to form the retaining walls for the approaches. The bridge railings are topped with double sawtooth-shaped rows of gabbro. Overall, the bridge is about wide. The bridge embodies mid-19th-century

Picturesque Picturesque is an aesthetic ideal introduced into English cultural debate in 1782 by William Gilpin in ''Observations on the River Wye, and Several Parts of South Wales, etc. Relative Chiefly to Picturesque Beauty; made in the Summer of the Year ...

traditions in its abrupt appearance on a secluded bend, high abutments emphasizing its height, arcing curve, pointed boulders lining the approach, and spiky railings. The City of Duluth rehabilitated the bridge from 2012 to 2013.

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Stewart Creek Bridge (Bridge L6007)
��Minnesota Department of Transportation {{National Register of Historic Places in Minnesota 1925 establishments in Minnesota Bridges completed in 1925 Buildings and structures in Duluth, Minnesota National Register of Historic Places in St. Louis County, Minnesota Road bridges on the National Register of Historic Places in Minnesota Stone arch bridges in the United States Transportation in Duluth, Minnesota

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