Erected 1895 · Demolished 1951

Hastings Spiral Bridge Only One of Its Kind in America
April 27 1895 eight thousand people commemorated the opening of the new "High Wagon Bridge" across the Mississippi River.

It was built in seven months at a cost of $39,050 by the Wisconsin Bridge and Iron Works of Milwaukee, replacing the inadequate rope ferry which served the city of 3,848 people and its trade area.

Four men claim credit for its design. The traditional straight approach by-passed the business area, thus this spiral ramp deposited off-coming traffic at the foot of Sibley Street half a block from the city's commercial district.

Motorized heavier traffic required a new bridge completed in 1951, at a cost of $2,500,000. Efforts to save the spiral approach failed.

Statistics
Minnesota Bridge ??4820
Bridge proper — Baltimore truss with curved top chord
Total bridge length — 1987 feet
Length of Earth approach — 120 feet
Length of spiral approach — 385 feet
Height of spiral approach — 60 feet
Length of channel span — 380 feet
Roadway width — 18 feet
Sidewalk width — 4½ feet with 8 inch elevation above road on east side
Load limit — 256½ tons
Total cost — $39,050
Completed — April 17, 1895
Demolished — 1951

Erected by the Hastings Bicentennial Commission
Dedicated May 31 1976

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Show me all markers in:  Hastings, MN  |  Dakota County  |  55033  |  Minnesota  |  United States of America

Spiral Bridge
American Legion Veterans Memorial
Mississippi
Downtown Develops
Veterans Memorial Levee
Hastings Grows
Steamboats, Trains, and Barges
Early Hastings
Going with the Flow
Living in the Water

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