I-35W Mississippi River Bridge - Location and Site History

Location and Site History

Located in Minneapolis, Minnesota's largest city, the bridge connected the Minneapolis neighborhoods of Downtown East and Marcy-Holmes. The south abutment was northeast of the Metrodome, and the north abutment was northwest of the University of Minnesota East Bank campus. The bridge was the southeastern boundary of the "Mississippi Mile" downtown riverfront parkland. Downstream is the 10th Avenue Bridge, once known as the Cedar Avenue Bridge. Immediately upstream is the lock and dam at Saint Anthony Falls, where Minneapolis began. The first bridge upstream is the historic Stone Arch Bridge, built for the Great Northern Railway and now used for bicycle and pedestrian traffic.

The north foundation pier of the bridge was near a hydroelectric plant, razed in 1988. The south abutment was in an area polluted by a coal-to-gas processing plant and a facility for storing and processing petroleum products. These uses effectively created a toxic waste site under the bridge, leading to a lawsuit and the removal of the contaminated soil. No relationship between these prior uses and the bridge failure has been claimed.