Franklin Steele - First Mississippi River Bridge

First Mississippi River Bridge

The two communities of Minneapolis and St. Anthony shared the resources of the Falls. Both towns grew quickly and developed a number of industries at the falls. The earliest waterpowered facilities were sawmills; flour mills soon followed. For many years river crossing between the communities was via a rope-drawn ferry, by foot when the river surface was frozen, or on floating log booms that often filled the channel.

Although he ran one such ferry, as early as 1852, Steele anticipated a need for a permanent bridge to span the river near present-day Hennepin Avenue. He formed the Mississippi Bridge Company to build a 620-foot (189 m)-long, 17-foot (5 m) wide suspension bridge, linking Minneapolis to Nicollet Island and hired Thomas Griffith to design it. The bridge was opened on 23 January 1855 with a large celebration. As a private enterprise, tolls were levied: five cents per pedestrian, twenty-five cents per horse-drawn wagon, and two cents for swine and sheep.

Steele had previously (in 1853) built a shorter bridge to cross the channel from Nicollet Island to St. Anthony; together these created the first permanent bridge to span the Mississippi at any point along its length. They linked the two cities, which legally merged in 1872, taking the name Minneapolis: a compound of the Dakota Indian word, "minne" or "mni" for "water", and the Greek "polis" for city.