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West River Road Bridge

Hennepin County, Minnesota

Photo 

Bassett Creek Tunnel

looking west

Photo from MNDOT

License: Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike (CC BY-SA)

View this photo at dot.state.mn.us

BH Photo #489937

Map 

Description 

Once carried rail yards. Part of a larger interconnected tunnel system.

Facts 

Overview
Stone arch bridge over Bassett Creek on W. River Road in Minneapolis
Location
Minneapolis, Hennepin County, Minnesota
Status
Open to traffic
History
Built 1890, tunnel system expanded Ca. 1915
Railroads
- Chicago & North Western Railway (CNW)
- Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha Railway (CMO)
- Great Northern Railway (GN)
- Northern Pacific Railroad (NP)
Design
Stone arch
Dimensions
Length of largest span: 22.0 ft.
Total length: 30.8 ft.
Deck width: 24.0 ft.
Also called
Bridge 94247
Bassett Creek Tunnel
Approximate latitude, longitude
+44.99014, -93.27411   (decimal degrees)
44°59'25" N, 93°16'27" W   (degrees°minutes'seconds")
Approximate UTM coordinates
15/478392/4981892 (zone/easting/northing)
Quadrangle map:
Minneapolis South
Average daily traffic (as of 2014)
3,550
Inventory numbers
MN 94247 (Minnesota bridge number)
BH 20438 (Bridgehunter.com ID)
Inspection report (as of July 2018)
Overall condition: Fair
Sufficiency rating: 83.7 (out of 100)
View more at BridgeReports.com

Categories 

19th Century (7,567)
Arch (12,102)
Built 1890 (272)
Built during 1890s (2,982)
Chicago & North Western Railway (1,405)
Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha Railway (140)
Deck arch (11,341)
Great Northern Railway (360)
Hennepin County, Minnesota (201)
Minneapolis, Minnesota (144)
 Minnesota (1,520)
Northern Pacific Railroad (387)
Open (39,881)
Owned by city (5,402)
Rail-to-road (342)
Railroad (15,426)
Skewed (4,906)
Span length under 25 feet (6,895)
Stone arch (3,051)
Total length 25-50 feet (11,193)

Update Log 

  • February 3, 2021: New photo from Geoff Hubbs
  • September 5, 2010: Updated by Matthew Lohry: Updated GPS coordinates

Sources 

  • Matt Lohry
  • Geoff Hubbs
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Comments 

West River Road Bridge
Posted February 3, 2021, by John Marvig (marvigj27 [at] gmail [dot] com)

Most of this arch was built by the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha Railway as part of a large yard and freighthouse complex. Great Northern and Northern Pacific also operated various industrial trackage over the top. The rail yard was fully intact until the early 1970s, and portions remained until the 1980s. The road would not have been built until the 1990s.

I also am not sure about the 1915 date. MNDOT gives a date of Ca. 1890, which sounds appropriate. In addition, these two sources give 1890 as the date in which the arch was constructed:

https://www.southwestjournal.com/focus/2012/03/the-weekend-t...

https://minneapolisparkhistory.com/2011/11/27/the-myth-of-ba...

However, the arch is actually part of a much larger tunnel system that once ran to 2nd Avenue and Fremont Avenue. Reportedly, the main portion of the tunnel may date to 1915:

http://www.mninter.net/~stack/bassett/descript.htm