Stillwater Bridge - Stillwater, Minnesota
Posted by: 
BruceS
N 45° 03.371 W 092° 48.234
15T E 515440 N 4989210
Historic lift bridge over the St. Croix River between Stillwater, Minnesota and Houlton, Wisconsin
Waymark Code: WM6PV7
Location: Minnesota, United States
Date Posted: 07/04/2009
Views: 20
"The Stillwater Bridge (alternatively known as the Stillwater Lift Bridge, St. Croix River Bridge at Stillwater, Mn/DOT Bridge #4654, and Wis/DOT Bridge #M-61) is a vertical lift bridge crossing the St. Croix River between Stillwater, Minnesota, and Houlton, Wisconsin. It connects Minnesota State Highway 36 and WIS 64, and is one of two bridges on the river between the Interstate 94 bridge in Hudson, Wisconsin and the U.S. Highway 8 bridge in Taylors Falls, Minnesota, providing a popular and useful alternative to those crossings. (The other bridge is the Minnesota State Highway 243 bridge, in Osceola, Wisconsin) Around 18,000 vehicles cross the bridge daily.
The bridge consists of ten fixed steel truss spans 1,050 feet (320 m) long in total, including a vertically lifting span 140 feet (43 m) long. It is 23 feet (7.0 m) wide, allowing one lane of traffic in each direction. The lifting span is a Waddell and Harrington type, one of six built in Minnesota and Wisconsin and one of three still remaining today. Built in 1931 to replace a swing bridge from 1910, it was the last bridge of this design to be built in the area. Minnesota and Wisconsin evenly split the $460,174 cost of the bridge.
Because the bridge feeds directly into downtown Stillwater on the Minnesota side, gridlock often occurs and traffic can back up on Minnesota State Highway 36 for many miles, especially on weekends and during the summer. The effect is made worse whenever the bridge is raised. The bridge's mechanisms have remained essentially unaltered since its opening in 1931 and have on occasion become stuck." - Wikipeida
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