History
The Northern Pacific Railway "A line" tracks once formed the southern boundary of the University of Minnesota East Bank campus. but as the University grew, the campus expanded southward around the railroad. The railroad noise, congestion, and pollution caused problems around the campus. In response, the Northern Pacific Railway built a new bridge that angled north of the campus, connecting with an existing railroad line going through Dinkytown. This enabled campus expansion and allowed the Northrop Mall to be built.
Today, the bridge is open to bicyclists and pedestrians. The bridge is accessible from the west side, where there is a connection to the West River Parkway trail, and on the east side via a service road up to East River Parkway near the Mineral Resources Research Center. Historic markers on either side of the bridge describe how the bridge was built and its importance to the area.
The City of Minneapolis plans to connect the bridge to the proposed U of M bicycle and pedestrian trail through Dinkytown in 2011. As part of the construction of the new St. Anthony Falls (35W) Bridge approach, a culvert has been installed that will allow the non-motorized trail to continue west into downtown Minneapolis.
On the south side of the deck, the words "North Coast Lim" can be seen. It formerly read North Coast Limited to advertise the Chicago to Seattle passenger train of that name.
Read more about this topic: Northern Pacific Bridge Number 9
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“History has neither the venerableness of antiquity, nor the freshness of the modern. It does as if it would go to the beginning of things, which natural history might with reason assume to do; but consider the Universal History, and then tell us,—when did burdock and plantain sprout first?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“What you don’t understand is that it is possible to be an atheist, it is possible not to know if God exists or why He should, and yet to believe that man does not live in a state of nature but in history, and that history as we know it now began with Christ, it was founded by Him on the Gospels.”
—Boris Pasternak (1890–1960)
“America is, therefore the land of the future, where, in the ages that lie before us, the burden of the World’s history shall reveal itself. It is a land of desire for all those who are weary of the historical lumber-room of Old Europe.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)