August 24, 2005
St. Paul's 7th Street Improvement Arches
(Filed under: Parks & Sights)
I took pictures of the 7th Street Improvement Arches in St. Paul a few weeks back after noticing the cool spiral pattern. The arches were built in 1884 as part of a massive project to bridge 7th Street over the combined valley of Trout Brook and Phalen Creek, several railroad tracks and ultimately link the downtown district with Dayton's Bluff. It was one of the biggest public works projects attempted by St. Paul at the time.
The arches were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989 and are known for their helicoidal or spiral method, which is both rare and technically demanding. It's the only known example of such a bridge in Minnesota (read the in-depth details of its historic significance). The arches were also designated a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark in 2000.
Today the railroad tracks are long gone and have been replaced with the Bruce Vento Regional Trail. The trail starts at a parking lot at 7th Street and Payne and curves around to go under the 7th Street Improvement Arches and into Swede Hollow Park. There are plans to continue the trail under I-94 and across 4th Street to connect it with the new Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary. The trail will also continue up the bluff to connect to Indian Mounds Park, as well as follow 4th Street to Lowertown. Construction will begin next spring and should be finished by the fall of 2006.
Posted by kevin at August 24, 2005 10:23 AM
Recent Entries
- More Paint the Pavement
- Paint the Pavement
- Mill City Museum
- Head House Grain Elevator
- St. Clair Broiler Turns 50
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.monkeyouttanowhere.com/cgi-bin/mt-tb2.cgi/1519
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference St. Paul's 7th Street Improvement Arches:
» 2005 Summer Blogging Review from thoughts
With the summer winding down and me blogging like a mad man all over the place (except maybe here), I thought it'd be a good idea to take a page from the Jason Kottke book and do a summer blog... [Read More]
Tracked on August 30, 2005 10:45 PM