The Franklin Avenue Bridge, officially the F.W. Cappelen Memorial Bridge, carries Franklin Avenue over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It was designed by Frederick William Cappelen, assisted by Kristoffer Olsen Oustad, both of whom were among four important Norwegian-American engineers working in the region at the time. The reinforced-concrete open-spandrel arched structure was completed in 1923. The bridge's overall length is 1054.7 feet (321.47 m), with a central span of 400 feet (122 m). It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978 along with several other area bridges as part of a multiple-property submission.
The current bridge replaces one built in 1889 and its pilings and foundation can still be seen to the south of the current bridge. During planning of this original bridge there was consideration and debate concerning its possible interference with river navigation.
In the late 1990s, there was an easy way to climb the arches under the bridge and walk along a path that spanned the entire way across the river. Vagrants, graffiti artists, and locals would frequent this area at all times of the day.
Famous quotes containing the words franklin, avenue and/or bridge:
“It was one of the rules which above all others made Doctr. Franklin the most amiable man in society, “never to contradict any body.””
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“I hate to do what everybody else is doing. Why, only last week, on Fifth Avenue and some cross streets, I noticed that every feminine citizen of these United States wore an artificial posy on her coat or gown. I came home and ripped off every one of the really lovely refrigerator blossoms that were sewn on my own bodices.”
—Carolyn Wells (1862–1942)
“What need the bridge much broader than the flood?”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)