The St. Paul and Pacific Railroad built the first bridge across the Mississippi River in the Twin Cities area at this location. The bridge opened May 1, 1867. The complete river crossings consists of two spans, this bridge over the main channel of the Mississippi River, and one over the smaller east channel of the Mississippi River. The land between the two river channels is known as Nicollet Island.

The first bridge was an iron truss bridge, with the trains running through the truss span. That bridge was replaced in 1893 with a steel bridge that used the deck plate girder design. That bridge was rebuilt again in 1926. The bridge had to be modified in 1963 to support the 9-foot navigation channel project as the Upper and Lower Saint Anthony Falls Locks & Dams were set to open. Two deck plate spans and a pier were removed and replaced with a Petit style truss span. The bridge was modified once again in 1987 to accommodate the newly built West River Parkway, which passes under the west end of the bridge.

This bridge has gone through a number of owners since 1867. This includes the St. Paul & Pacific, the St. Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba Railway, and later the Great Northern Railway. The Great Northern was part of a large merger to become the Burlington Northern, which merged once again to become the Burlington Northern Santa Fe. In addition to being used by a major railroad, several other railroads have trackage rights to this bridge. As a result, one does not need to wait long to see a train cross this structure.

The photo above is a view of the Nicollet Island Railroad Bridge from a vantage point just downriver of the structure. Notice the large pilings and wooden guards that protect the bridge piers from barge strikes.

The photo below was taken from the parking lot located at the very west end of the bridge. An interesting feature of the bridge is that a spur rail line once diverged from the bridge at the midpoint of the river crossing. I have not been able to document when that spur was built, or when it was removed. This spur line allowed trains to have access to the Minneapolis Union Depot, which was located at the site of the current downtown Minneapolis post office, and later, the Great Northern Depot, which was located on the site of the new Federal Reserve building. The Great Northern Depot was demolished in 1978, which leads the author to suspect that the rail spur was removed when the West River Parkway was built in 1986 and 1987.

The photo above is a view of the northern bridge portal on Nicollet Island. The Warehouse District just west of downtown Minneapolis is located on the far side of the river. The photo below is a slightly different view of from Nicollet Island.