The Bridges And Structures
Of The Upper Minnesota River

This is my tenth photo tour detailing the bridges and structures of a great American river. In this survey, we visit the bridges, locks, and dams on the Minnesota River between its source at Big Stone Lake along the Minnesota and South Dakota state line down to the small town of Redwood Falls, Minnesota.

The Minnesota River is important in a number of different aspects. In geological terms, the Minnesota was the primary outlet of the glacial lakes before the Mississippi River headwaters section was formed. In historic terms, the Minnesota was one of the first superhighways in the US, connecting the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers to the interior of Canada. In economic terms, the Minnesota flows though the heart of the vegetable canning area of Minnesota and home of the Jolly Green Giant.

The section of the Minnesota River that we visit here is little more than a small stream meandering through the bottom of a large river valley that runs the width of the state. The river is no more than an echo of what it once was as the rock moraine holding back glacial lake Agassiz crumbled and unleashed a torrent of water that cut a 130 foot deep gorge across the state in as little as a few weeks some 8,000 years ago.