Robert Street Bridge
The bridge was commissioned in the early 1920s to replace a wrought-iron span, originally built in 1884–1885, that had become obsolete due to increasing traffic. The engineers who designed the bridge had several obstacles to work around. The tracks of the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha Railway, St. Paul Union Depot, and the Chicago Great Western Railway mainline were factors. The engineers also had to provide adequate clearance above the river, as defined by the United States War Department at the time. Finally, the bridge had to clear Second Street in downtown St. Paul and work through a busy manufacturing district at the south end. The location of nearly every pier was dictated by these requirements. As a result, the bridge was designed with a combination of barrel-arch and rib-arch flanking spans and a rainbow arch for the central span.
One of the members of the crew building the bridge was Warren Burger, future Chief Justice of the United States.
See also
- List of crossings of the Upper Mississippi River
- National Register of Historic Places listings in Ramsey County, Minnesota
References
- "Minnesota's Historic Bridges - Robert Street Bridge". Minnesota's Historic Bridges. Minnesota Historical Society. 1996. Archived from the original on 2006-02-21. Retrieved 2006-03-25.