In 1919, Hennepin County hired the Illinois Steel Bridge Company to replace a deteriorating timber trestle built across Long Meadow Lake in 1891. The new 860-foot bridge, which opened in 1920, was the longest Camelback through-truss bridge in the state. Its five steel spans rested on concrete piers in the lake and concrete abutments at the shore, but by 1923 the piers were leaning and an abutment had cracked because the timber pilings supporting them were unstable in the floodplain's poor soil. After repairs, the bridge needed only routine maintenance for decades, though larger vehicles and increasing traffic eventually damaged its railings and truss members, and its worn concrete deck was replaced with a wood deck in 1961. The bridge became unnecessary after the Minnesota Department of Transportation opened a new six-lane bridge just downriver in 1980, and after the demolition in 1981 of a companion swing span bridge over the Minnesota River, ownership of the old truss bridge passed to the City of Bloomington. The deteriorating bridge was closed to vehicles in 1993 and to all users in 2002, but bikers, hikers, bird-watchers, and preservationists rallied successfully to save it. It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2013 and rehabilitated for pedestrian and bicycle use between 2015 and 2017.

Photo: McGhiever