Laughter, Falling Water and Time
The folks from the Minnesota Boat Club have been rowing on the river since 1870. Located under the Wabasha Bridge on the west end of Raspberry Island, the original boathouse was a wooden structure. It was replaced in the early 1900′s by the existing boathouse shown in the postcard below. In 1949, the United States … Read more
The Wabasha Street Bridge built in 1998 replaced an earlier structure that was built in 1889. The new bridge is actually two bridges, one for northbound and one for southbound traffic. The use of a concrete segmental box girder bridge provided a construction advantage because no falsework needed to be built beneath the bridge. Pedestrian … Read more
The park at Harriet Island was built by Dr. Justus Ohage, St. Paul’s health officer, who donated the land to the city in 1900. His idea for the park was to build a place for healthy living in the center of the city. The park originally had a public bathhouse and beach, along with amenities … Read more
The Franklin Avenue or F.W. Cappelen Memorial Bridge was designed by and named for Frederick William Cappelen. The bridge was completed in 1923. Cappelen died during the construction of the bridge, and as a memorial to his life and career, the bridge still bears his name. The reinforced-concrete open-spandrel arched bridge took a couple years … Read more
The Inter-City Bridge Commission which has handled construction of the bridge under an agreement by which each city pays half of the cost, met today to sign final papers accepting the bridge, and declared that July 4th would be the day when the structure will be “open to the public.” However, the bridge is unblocked … Read more