Broadway Avenue Bridge

Broadway Avenue Bridge is a girder bridge that spans the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Designed by Norman C. Davis and Shawn Pierson Bruns of VanDoren-Hazard-Stallings, it was built in 1987. The bridge has a rather streamlined shape, but its piers are more ornate. The piers have two flat columns that taper together, with a base that extends out to the full width of the bridge.

Broadway Avenue Bridge
Coordinates	44°59′56″N 93°16′31″W
Carries	Four lanes of West Broadway/Broadway Street Northeast
Crosses	Mississippi River
Locale	Minneapolis, Minnesota
Official name	Broadway Avenue Bridge
Maintained by	City of Minneapolis
ID number	27608
Characteristics
Design	Girder bridge
Total length	857 feet (261 m)
Width	52 feet (16 m)
Longest span	186 feet (57 m)
Clearance below	22.6 feet (6.9 m)
History
Opened	1987
Location

This bridge is the third bridge to cross the river at this location. The first bridge was a wooden structure completed in 1857, but washed away in a flood in 1859. The second bridge was a four-span Pratt truss bridge built in 1887. It spanned the northern industrial district that was developing on both sides of the river. The 1887 bridge was very ornate, featuring finials on each top corner and a band of scrolls, crosses, and lines between them. The horizontal struts and guard railings used X-shapes as a pattern. In 1950, the bridge was raised 20 feet (6.1 m) to allow barges and larger boats to pass underneath. The old bridge was removed in 1985, but a single span of the bridge lives on as the Merriam Street Bridge that connects Nicollet Island to the St. Anthony section of Minneapolis.

This span of the old Broadway Avenue Bridge lives on as the Merriam Street Bridge.

1985 view of the bridge, prior to its removal