Background
The Hwy 65/Third Ave. Bridge, which opened June 14, 1918, was originally named the St. Anthony Falls Bridge. It crosses the Mississippi at the edge of downtown Minneapolis.
The structure’s curved alignment was dictated by difficult foundation conditions at its location just upstream from St. Anthony Falls. The monumental, reinforced-concrete, Melan-arch structure has five rib-arch main spans and two barrel-arch main spans.
The original structure had four approach spans at each end, some cast-in-place reinforced-concrete beam spans and the rest steel beam spans; these were replaced by two spans for each approach in 1979.
The bridge is a contributing feature in the St. Anthony Falls Historic District, which was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1971, and the bridge was previously determined individually eligible for its engineering significance.
The bridge has experienced some changes during the course of time, including the beginning of streetcar service on tracks that were installed when the bridge was built, the removal of the tracks after service was discontinued in the 1950s, and major renovations in 1938-1939 and the 1970s.