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General Information

Completion: July 1987
Status: in use

Project Type

Function / usage: Road bridge
Structure: Deck arch bridge
Material: Steel bridge
Support conditions:
Material: Structurae Plus/Pro - Subscribe Now!

Awards and Distinctions

1989 Award of Merit  

Location

Location: , , ,
Address: Smith Avenue (MN-149)
Crosses:
  • Mississippi River
Replaces: Smith Avenue High Bridge (1889)
Coordinates: 44° 55' 59" N    93° 6' 17" W
Show coordinates on a map

Technical Information

Dimensions

main span 158.5 m
length 844.2 m

Materials

deck steel
piers reinforced concrete
arches steel
piers on arch steel

Excerpt from Wikipedia

The High Bridge is a bridge that carries Minnesota State Highway 149 and Smith Avenue over the Mississippi River in Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. It was built and opened in 1987 at a cost of $20 million. The bridge carries two lanes of street traffic over the river and is the highest bridge in St. Paul, with a deck height of 160 ft (49 m) and a clearance below of 149 ft (45 m).

The current bridge replaced a 2,770-foot (840 m) iron Warren deck truss bridge constructed in 1889. In 1904 the original bridge was partially destroyed by a tornado or severe storm and the southernmost five spans had to be rebuilt. With modest alterations it served for nearly a century, but in 1977 an inspection found irreparable structural deficiencies. The Minnesota Department of Transportation enacted a weight restriction on the bridge until it was closed in 1984 and demolished the following year. The ornamental ironwork on the replacement was built using iron from the old bridge. The first bridge had been listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1981 and was delisted in 1988.

In February 2008, City Pages, a weekly publication in the Twin Cities, published a feature about the long history of suicide at the bridge. The article included testimony of a survivor who leapt from the bridge.

The bridge closed September 2017 for a redecking project. It reopened to traffic the afternoon of November 21, 2018.

Text imported from Wikipedia article "High Bridge (St. Paul)" and modified on July 23, 2019 according to the CC-BY-SA 4.0 International license.

Relevant Web Sites

  • About this
    data sheet
  • Structure-ID
    20029664
  • Published on:
    02/08/2007
  • Last updated on:
    03/11/2023
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