Point Douglas – St. Louis River Road Bridge

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Point Douglas-St. Louis River Road Bridge at Stillwater, Minnesota

The Point Douglas – St. Louis River Road Bridge is the oldest known stone arch bridge in Minnesota , United States . The structure was built in 1863 and is near Stillwater . It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on February 24, 1975 .

The road that once crossed the bridge was one of the first road construction projects in the state . When Minnesota became a Territory in 1848 , there were few land-based transportation routes in the area, apart from the Red River Trails , which were used for transportation. Henry Hastings Sibley , who later became Minnesota’s first governor , turned to the United States Congress in 1850 to apply for funds to build a network of military roads in the Minnesota Territory. The Minnesota Road Act was passed in July 1850. The Point Douglas-St. Louis River Road was approved and should go from Point Douglas (north of today's Hastings ) via Cottage Grove , Stillwater, Marine Mills (now Marine on St. Croix ), Falls of St. Croix (now Taylors Falls ) to the waterfalls or rapids of the Saint Louis River on Lake Superior . The intended purpose of these military roads was to provide a route for the rapid relocation of military units to where they were needed, but much more often these roads were used by civilians traveling between existing settlements or wanting to enter new settlement areas .

There are no records of previous bridges at this point, so it is unclear why this bridge was built in 1863, a few years after the decision to build the military roads was made. The Point Douglas-St. Louis River Road was never fully completed as a military road because Congress only approved $ 10,000, $ 15,000, and $ 20,000 at a time, so Hastings and other Territory officials had to apply for funding to complete the road several times. When Minnesota became a state in 1858, about two-thirds of Point Douglas – St. Louis River Road completed.

The bridge is built from locally broken limestone blocks and was built by local bricklayers Frederick Curtis and Michael Hanly. The Washington County Board of Commissioners may not have been happy with the work, refusing to approve the structure and pay the builders, even though the bridge eventually went into service. Frederick Curtis' grandson found in 1974 that the amount granted to the builders was around $ 500. The stone structure was used until around 1891, then a wider wooden bridge was built around 60 m further east of the site and the road layout was changed. In 1905, a local miller took advantage of the structure when he built a three-story mill . However, his business was unsuccessful and the mill was demolished in 1927, leaving only the bridge.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c d e Denis P. Gardner: Wood, Concrete, Stone, and Steel: Minnesota's Historic Bridges . University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis , Minnesota 2008, ISBN 978-0-8166-4666-1 , pp. 31-34 (English).
  2. ^ National Register Information System. In: National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service, accessed March 8, 2013 .
  3. ^ Bills and Resolutions, House of Representatives, 31st Congress, 1st Session: HR 21. In: A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: US Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774–1875. Library of Congress , February 4, 1850, accessed October 4, 2009 .

Coordinates: 45 ° 4 ′ 32 "  N , 92 ° 49 ′ 44"  W.