I was a part of the original high school class whom worked to preserve the bridge. As a young kid, we would take the toll bridge across the river. Trains operated on it though rarely.
@@pablonh for conversation sake, I was thinking that the direct object was the high school class, therefore I believe it is whom. But if I'm wrong, please explain it so I can better understand!
@@tomasicenogle "high school class" is the object of the preposition "of", but that's not relevant to the form of the relative pronoun (who, whom, which, that). In this case, it's the subject of the verb "worked" so must be in the nominative case.
As a Minneapolis resident, it’s great to see a video about something in my region I never even knew about! I’ll definitely have to pay a visit soon. Thanks for more light, fun, and educational content. Keep up the good work!
Typical private sector company, buy an asset that the public sector built, take money out of it for 20 years and then hand it back when a big maintenance bill comes along.
Two things. First, very cool idea. Reminds me of ocean piers I've fished off of along both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Secondly, that "oh, are ya?" from the passer-by at the end was so Minnesotan I literally laughed out loud 🤣
Another 'disconnected bridge' is the New Yalu Friendship Bridge - a full-sized highway bridge that was built from China to North Korea... that literally stops in a paddock. It's connected now, but for many years there was a full highway just stopping dead in that paddock, and the North Koreans just weren't interested in hooking it up. Worth a google image search.
Some folks tried to do that with the Helen Keller bridge here in Decatur, AL back in the 90's. It was the last drawbridge over the Tennessee River and there were efforts to save the span on the south side of the drawbridge section to incorporate into the nearby park and waterfront development they were doing.
Nice to see you were in Minnesota, Julian! ♥ I've walked out on the Rock Island Bridge (aka the "Newport bridge", since it connected Inver Grove Heights to St Paul Park and Newport) a few times before and after it was restored. Back when it was abandoned, they left the swing span open so river traffic could get under -- so the Inver Grove end was already an unofficial recreational pier then. That's the end that's still standing; the Newport/St Paul Park end (next to the refinery) was the end that collapsed. On the refinery end, the road used to connect to another road connecting Newport and St Paul Park -- which zig-zagged right through the refinery, with a bunch of pipes going overhead on two big gantries. This other road (4th Ave in Newport, 3rd Ave and 3rd St in St Paul Park) was closed in the 2000s, in favor of a different road (7th Ave and a new bit of of St Paul Park Rd) going around the refinery. The diversion was built when Hwy 10/61 was being rebuilt nearby, along with a rebuild of the Wakota Bridge itself and its approaches on 494. Only quibble is the park board involved with the bridge would probably be the Parks & Recreation department of the City of Inver Grove Heights. Otherwise, a good brief video! 🙂
Spent a lot of money? Sounds more like they *SAVED* a lot of money (And history), while making a feature that would have cost a heck of a lot more, and a local tourist attraction. Well done :)
Hope you had a great time in MN! Bonus fact about the area, you were about 6 miles north of a newly discovered meteor impact crater that's about 4km wide.
@@bbeen40 So when I said newly discovered, I do mean recent. The news only came out at the tail end of Sepetember of 2022. The Minnesota Geological Servey was looking at the rocks and soil in the area when a sample from 350ft below ground found sand crystals that (at current understanding) could only have formed at a meteor impact crater. It's quite a large one too, about 11 times the area than the Meteor Crater in Arizona. However, it's much harder to see due to its age, being about 490M years old (compared to only 50K for the one in AZ). It's dubbed the Pine Bend impact sight and if you've driven to Rochester you've likely been in it. The highway section where HWY 55 runs concurrently with US route 52 pretty much covers its diameter.
@@dennisshaykevich3451 That's fascinating! Thanks a lot for your comment. I'm gonna see what I find about it. Comments like yours are why I read the comments. Have a great day Sir!
@@JulianOShea it’s weird how that’s a thing now. We use LOL and ROFL and other ways of expressing amusement, but when we actually do laugh we have to make sure that’s made clear. Haha.
I'm surprised that the railroad (the good ol' Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific - "The Rock") was on top of the road traffic. At Fort Madison, Iowa the double deck swing bridge (crossing the Mississippi between Illinois and Iowa) has the trains on the lower deck and the highway on the upper deck. When you see the size of the freight trains you can see why this is the preferred arrangement!
Another consideration favoring using the lower deck for trains is that trains can only climb about a 4% grade, so putting the trains on top requires much longer ramps on either end of the bridge than putting the road traffic (wheter horses or cars) on the top.
@@Spearca is the winner in this case - this line goes near the Mississippi on the South end of the Twin Cities - there is a series of bluffs all along the river in that area, so having train on top was clearly the solution "easier to deal with grade" despite the engineering normally favoring train on bottom.
@@chouseification There's a bridge in Duluth MN (connecting to Oliver, Wisconsin) that has the tracks on the upper deck for the same reason. The St Louis River's banks are high there, so it's easier to ramp the road down and keep the rails on top.
@@AaronOfMpls I don't think I have been on that one (at least not in recent decades) but that does ring a bell. I was up there in college, and one set of grandparents were from there, so I saw a lot of random stuff most missed. Nothing will beat when we were in town when they were blasting for the I-35 tunnel - signs all over town asking people to turn off their CB radios, for fear they may trigger a charge on accident.
In my neck of the woods, out in Western Massachusetts, there used to be a double-deck bridge with the tracks on top. It was used by the B&M railroad to run a branch line from Greenfield MA to the factory village of Turner's Falls. Not notable for being a swing bridge, which it wasn't, but it was interesting for being made out of wood. The railroad was forced to stop using it by the late 1920s, but it continued to be used as a road bridge until it was lifted off its piers and carried downriver by the 1936 flood of the Connecticut River Valley. The new bridge is in a slightly different spot from the old one, and you can still see one of the old abutments. I get the impression that at one time, double deck wooden covered bridges were somewhat popular- two crossings for the price of one, what could go wrong... but I can't imagine it went well when the horses pulling your carriage heard and felt a train cross the bridge above them.
in Neenah Wisconsin we have a similar bridge but it is a complete bridge that used to be a train bridge it was converted into a trail bridge it is known as the trestle trail
Great video Julian, an interesting backstory and what an awesome filming location! Whenever I see a video about bridges I'm always reminded of a bit in a Flight of The Conchords tune featuring an NZ tour bus guide noting points of interest around town, and I start riffing on it in my head..."if you look to your left you'll see the Old Bridge. Funny story actually; the Old Bridge used to be called the New Bridge, but then they built a newer New Bridge so the New Bridge became the Old Bridge. There used to be an older Old Bridge, but that was replaced by the New Bridge, which is now the Old Bridge". The kind of bit that's so obviously unfunny, it actually becomes funny. :)
I've been to a couple of places on the California coast where they started to build a bridge across the Pacific Ocean but stopped after a couple hundred feet. I think they called it a pier.
Near where I live we have a road refer to as the road to nowhere, it was intended to be a bit of a short cut, I think but the stumbling block was the railway, they couldn't get permission to build a bridge over it, so the entrance was blocked off and these days it's mostly a place for people to go to walk or cycle, there is a path at the end that leads to a busy lane, while in the other direction it leads to the main road out of my town, running along side some farmland and a community green or as it's referred to as a common, a nice little wildlife haven
When you get back down under you could do a video on the Avon River railway bridge that was started but never completed, as part of the abandoned Maldon to Dombarton rail line project.
Wow I didn't expect you to come to Minnesota for a video. I was just showing my partner that same picture of the original Hennepin Avenue bridge. Definitely gonna check out this bridge sometime soon (maybe when the snow melts)
Reminds me of the old Barneys Point bridge near Tweed Heads which had a lift span for taller boats. Was replaced years ago for a higher freeway bridge, though the retained section is quite a small unimpressive pier now, nothing quite elegant like this
Hey Julian, when you get back to Australia you should check out Mt Wycheproof, the smallest mountain in the world. It's about 3 hours drive northwest of Melbourne.
Not exactly a "Bridge to Nowhere" but when a segment of Harrisburg Pennsylvania's 1890's Walnut St. Bridge collapsed in the 1990's it was also converted to a pedestrian bridge and is now one of the city's best landmarks. It does connect the downtown area with City Island which houses recreation areas and a baseball stadium so it still serves a purpose as a bridge but the span that used to continue on to the West Shore has never been replaced.
Keokuk has kind of a similar situation going on , a double decker rail & highway swing bridge of which the rail is still in use but the road deck now is an observation deck. Illinois side road deck is still there but abandoned. Bridge is almost always swung open to accommodate barge traffic, only closing when a train is waiting to pass.
Your memory is confused and has combined the Keokuk & the Fort Madison bridges lol! Ft. Madison still is an operating double decker swing bridge! Keokuk bridge was mostly torn down & has a pedestrian section left where you can watch lock 19 operate (& there is also a hydroelectric plant still operating at that damn). Best regards!
Nowadays there's a permanent artistic installation "Bridge to Nowhere" part of the building at the Guthrie Theater / Performing Arts Center in Minneapolis on the Mississippi. Edit to clarify: the Guthrie is over by the Mill City Museum, St Anthony Falls and Xcel Energy hydropower plant, the Stone Arch Bridge, and the I-35W bridge. Sincerely, A lifelong Minnesotan
We have a similar thing in Tampa with the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. The original bridge collapsed after being hit by a carrier ship in 1980. They built the new bridge alongside it and the old bridge was partially demolished and turned into a fishing pier.
This bridge also served as the route of old Highway 100 crossing the Mississippi river to complete the beltline around the Twin Cities metro for a time.
Probably one of the only people on here that went across that bridge many times when I was little. My dad worked at that refinery. Back then it was called Ashland refinery.
We have one like that in the south San Francisco bay area. When they took out the old Dumbarton vertical lift bridge they left the approaches in place as fishing piers. They eventually removed the west side approach but left the other in place. You can see it here: czcams.com/video/AB23krP4VXU/video.html
did the trains that used the bridge have toilets ? I have been on trains like the Ghan in the 1970s where the bottom of the toilet bowl you could see a pipe going straight down to the railway track.
I was a young lad when the trains were stopped. My grandparents also lived nearby. I never liked being on the bridge with trains because if a barge came through, the traffic stopped. Imagine sitting in your car as a diesel locomotive idles above you. You could JUST cross two cars on the bridge. And as it was the only pedestrian crossing in 40 miles (between St. Paul and Hastings), crossing outside a car was risky for you and annoying for cars. I only ever did it twice. Once east, once west. Since old Wakota would often back up, the Rock was busy on Fridays. The hope that it would reopen fell after 9/11 when Ashland decided they were at risk of attack. And that's my two cents.
Yeah, it's definitely possible to still have a title that gets people interested, let's people know what your talking about, but isn't clickbait. It's a thin line to walk, but certainly possible.
I don't know what they are called but where I live there are bridges to nowhere except they're really tiny and don't stick out very far into the water. I know they have a different name than bridge so this is basically a giant one of those now.
I think there's quite a lot of examples of these across the country - old bridges no longer suitable for their original purpose and part of it saved and reused as a fishing pier. There's a couple of examples I can think of in my state. Ideally though, these bridges should be saved in their entirely and converted to pedestrian/bike trail use, and can still incorporate space for fishing.
CZcams recommended this video because I live here, kind of weird to see it in a this kind of video, but cool. I feel like you kind of glossed over the part where literally half of the bridge fell into the river.
Hang on.... Wait a minute.... I'm startin to think you're not in Melbourne anymore!
Maybe he's at the Mississippi Creek in Victoria haha
I came back. The video editing process moves slowly. Real time updates inbound!
You get it.
He ain’t in Kansas anymore 🤣
With the weather around Vic lately, it hasn’t exactly been the place to be, unless you are a duck and drive a duck.
This makes me think: Aren't all piers just bridges to nowhere?
Getting existential in the comments.
Fancy seeing you here! Love your content mate!
Purpose built piers don't start life as a bridge.
In the future, archaeologists will look at piers and think rivers and lakes were very narrow, and had way too many bridge crossings!
I was a part of the original high school class whom worked to preserve the bridge. As a young kid, we would take the toll bridge across the river. Trains operated on it though rarely.
"who worked" (or "that worked")
@@pablonh for conversation sake, I was thinking that the direct object was the high school class, therefore I believe it is whom. But if I'm wrong, please explain it so I can better understand!
@@tomasicenogle "high school class" is the object of the preposition "of", but that's not relevant to the form of the relative pronoun (who, whom, which, that). In this case, it's the subject of the verb "worked" so must be in the nominative case.
@@tomasicenogle (You're welcome.)
@@pablonh no need to condescend
Julian O'Shea is slowly becoming the Australian Tom Scott, and I love it! 😆
didn't even make that connection initially, but you're completely right LOL
I would argue that Tom Scott is the British version of Julian O'Shea. 😆
Who's Tom Scott?
I'd probably say The Tim Traveller.
Have been waiting for a Tom + Julien colab for a while now, reckon I'll have to nominate Julian next time Tom asks us to recommend a surrogate host
As a Minneapolis resident, it’s great to see a video about something in my region I never even knew about! I’ll definitely have to pay a visit soon. Thanks for more light, fun, and educational content. Keep up the good work!
Same here I've lived in the TC my whole life and never knew about this bridge. Definetly need to check it out.
Typical private sector company, buy an asset that the public sector built, take money out of it for 20 years and then hand it back when a big maintenance bill comes along.
Indeed.
Here in Port Pirie, South Australia (still shit) we actually have a bridge that is called the "Bridge To Nowhere". Love your work, Julian.
Cheers, mate.
still shit
I understood that reference, even if Port Pirie isn't 10th on the shit towns list, it'll always be 11th at the lowest
There is also a "Bridge to nowhere" on the Island of Lewis in the Hebrides in Scotland
Love that you guys own the (still shit) :P
Two things. First, very cool idea. Reminds me of ocean piers I've fished off of along both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Secondly, that "oh, are ya?" from the passer-by at the end was so Minnesotan I literally laughed out loud 🤣
Lovely historical artefact, with a panoramic view of… a refinery
Another 'disconnected bridge' is the New Yalu Friendship Bridge - a full-sized highway bridge that was built from China to North Korea... that literally stops in a paddock. It's connected now, but for many years there was a full highway just stopping dead in that paddock, and the North Koreans just weren't interested in hooking it up. Worth a google image search.
I did google it!
China had the same situation with Russia somewhere on the Amur river. Should have something to do with chinese construction sector.
what's paddock?
@@NoNameAtAll2 A farm field.
That was what popped in my mind.
My dad’s house was right by that bridge! It was on terrible shape even in the 80s. Glad to see it in use again!
Some folks tried to do that with the Helen Keller bridge here in Decatur, AL back in the 90's. It was the last drawbridge over the Tennessee River and there were efforts to save the span on the south side of the drawbridge section to incorporate into the nearby park and waterfront development they were doing.
Nice to see you were in Minnesota, Julian! ♥
I've walked out on the Rock Island Bridge (aka the "Newport bridge", since it connected Inver Grove Heights to St Paul Park and Newport) a few times before and after it was restored. Back when it was abandoned, they left the swing span open so river traffic could get under -- so the Inver Grove end was already an unofficial recreational pier then. That's the end that's still standing; the Newport/St Paul Park end (next to the refinery) was the end that collapsed.
On the refinery end, the road used to connect to another road connecting Newport and St Paul Park -- which zig-zagged right through the refinery, with a bunch of pipes going overhead on two big gantries. This other road (4th Ave in Newport, 3rd Ave and 3rd St in St Paul Park) was closed in the 2000s, in favor of a different road (7th Ave and a new bit of of St Paul Park Rd) going around the refinery. The diversion was built when Hwy 10/61 was being rebuilt nearby, along with a rebuild of the Wakota Bridge itself and its approaches on 494.
Only quibble is the park board involved with the bridge would probably be the Parks & Recreation department of the City of Inver Grove Heights. Otherwise, a good brief video! 🙂
Spent a lot of money? Sounds more like they *SAVED* a lot of money (And history), while making a feature that would have cost a heck of a lot more, and a local tourist attraction. Well done :)
Thanks Julian, brilliant idea, what a focal point for the locals and tourists to see the river and the surrounding area, Cheers.
Hope you had a great time in MN! Bonus fact about the area, you were about 6 miles north of a newly discovered meteor impact crater that's about 4km wide.
I live in the twin cities and this is the first I've heard of that, please tell me more!
@@bbeen40 So when I said newly discovered, I do mean recent. The news only came out at the tail end of Sepetember of 2022. The Minnesota Geological Servey was looking at the rocks and soil in the area when a sample from 350ft below ground found sand crystals that (at current understanding) could only have formed at a meteor impact crater. It's quite a large one too, about 11 times the area than the Meteor Crater in Arizona. However, it's much harder to see due to its age, being about 490M years old (compared to only 50K for the one in AZ). It's dubbed the Pine Bend impact sight and if you've driven to Rochester you've likely been in it. The highway section where HWY 55 runs concurrently with US route 52 pretty much covers its diameter.
@@dennisshaykevich3451
That's fascinating! Thanks a lot for your comment. I'm gonna see what I find about it. Comments like yours are why I read the comments. Have a great day Sir!
This is really cool. Nice to see industrial heritage preserved.
I only watched half of the
I actually laughed.
@@JulianOShea it’s weird how that’s a thing now. We use LOL and ROFL and other ways of expressing amusement, but when we actually do laugh we have to make sure that’s made clear. Haha.
Great work on this one Julian! Love the footage and the research.
I hope your channel keeps growing, and fast! Been watching you for ages. Keep it up! You're representing Australia well.
This bridge reminds me of how I feel every time I cross the old Burdekin River bridge in North Queensland.
Similar thing has been done back in Oz. Check out the wikipedia page for Hornibrook Bridge.
Ah good tip, thanks!
@@JulianOShea It has 3 bridges, a lot of history too. Worth a vid if you're ever up this way!
Love your videos so informative and quick
I'm surprised that the railroad (the good ol' Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific - "The Rock") was on top of the road traffic. At Fort Madison, Iowa the double deck swing bridge (crossing the Mississippi between Illinois and Iowa) has the trains on the lower deck and the highway on the upper deck. When you see the size of the freight trains you can see why this is the preferred arrangement!
Another consideration favoring using the lower deck for trains is that trains can only climb about a 4% grade, so putting the trains on top requires much longer ramps on either end of the bridge than putting the road traffic (wheter horses or cars) on the top.
@@Spearca is the winner in this case - this line goes near the Mississippi on the South end of the Twin Cities - there is a series of bluffs all along the river in that area, so having train on top was clearly the solution "easier to deal with grade" despite the engineering normally favoring train on bottom.
@@chouseification There's a bridge in Duluth MN (connecting to Oliver, Wisconsin) that has the tracks on the upper deck for the same reason. The St Louis River's banks are high there, so it's easier to ramp the road down and keep the rails on top.
@@AaronOfMpls I don't think I have been on that one (at least not in recent decades) but that does ring a bell. I was up there in college, and one set of grandparents were from there, so I saw a lot of random stuff most missed.
Nothing will beat when we were in town when they were blasting for the I-35 tunnel - signs all over town asking people to turn off their CB radios, for fear they may trigger a charge on accident.
In my neck of the woods, out in Western Massachusetts, there used to be a double-deck bridge with the tracks on top. It was used by the B&M railroad to run a branch line from Greenfield MA to the factory village of Turner's Falls. Not notable for being a swing bridge, which it wasn't, but it was interesting for being made out of wood. The railroad was forced to stop using it by the late 1920s, but it continued to be used as a road bridge until it was lifted off its piers and carried downriver by the 1936 flood of the Connecticut River Valley. The new bridge is in a slightly different spot from the old one, and you can still see one of the old abutments.
I get the impression that at one time, double deck wooden covered bridges were somewhat popular- two crossings for the price of one, what could go wrong... but I can't imagine it went well when the horses pulling your carriage heard and felt a train cross the bridge above them.
in Neenah Wisconsin we have a similar bridge but it is a complete bridge that used to be a train bridge it was converted into a trail bridge it is known as the trestle trail
Great video Julian, an interesting backstory and what an awesome filming location!
Whenever I see a video about bridges I'm always reminded of a bit in a Flight of The Conchords tune featuring an NZ tour bus guide noting points of interest around town, and I start riffing on it in my head..."if you look to your left you'll see the Old Bridge. Funny story actually; the Old Bridge used to be called the New Bridge, but then they built a newer New Bridge so the New Bridge became the Old Bridge. There used to be an older Old Bridge, but that was replaced by the New Bridge, which is now the Old Bridge".
The kind of bit that's so obviously unfunny, it actually becomes funny. :)
Gold. Funny crew. And thanks!
How many times did you get interrupted Julian?
Just the once. We had a lovely chat.
I've been to a couple of places on the California coast where they started to build a bridge across the Pacific Ocean but stopped after a couple hundred feet. I think they called it a pier.
There's a bridge to nowhere in NZ too - in the Whanganui National Park.
cheers Julian, very amusing!
love your vids. ty
Near where I live we have a road refer to as the road to nowhere, it was intended to be a bit of a short cut, I think but the stumbling block was the railway, they couldn't get permission to build a bridge over it, so the entrance was blocked off and these days it's mostly a place for people to go to walk or cycle, there is a path at the end that leads to a busy lane, while in the other direction it leads to the main road out of my town, running along side some farmland and a community green or as it's referred to as a common, a nice little wildlife haven
Thank you..❤️☘️
I’ve been there many times! Right next to where I live. I even used the old swing bridge when it was in place back in the late 90’s.
When you get back down under you could do a video on the Avon River railway bridge that was started but never completed, as part of the abandoned Maldon to Dombarton rail line project.
Top stuff mate. Cheers.
Cheers mate!
Geez, you get around mate!
🚀🚀🚀
Wow I didn't expect you to come to Minnesota for a video. I was just showing my partner that same picture of the original Hennepin Avenue bridge. Definitely gonna check out this bridge sometime soon (maybe when the snow melts)
Don't forget to hit King of Diamonds up the street. Say hi to the ladies for me, lol.
@@bbeen40 I don't patron businesses my office has sued for unfair labor practices
@@onesob13
Shoot, this is Minnesota. I've never worked for a company that didn't stomp all over my rights.
Reminds me of the old Barneys Point bridge near Tweed Heads which had a lift span for taller boats. Was replaced years ago for a higher freeway bridge, though the retained section is quite a small unimpressive pier now, nothing quite elegant like this
One of our favorite parks. Great place to visit.
Hey Julian, when you get back to Australia you should check out Mt Wycheproof, the smallest mountain in the world. It's about 3 hours drive northwest of Melbourne.
Good job.
👍👍👍👊👊
That’s actually really cool history…I didn’t need to know but found fascinating
Not exactly a "Bridge to Nowhere" but when a segment of Harrisburg Pennsylvania's 1890's Walnut St. Bridge collapsed in the 1990's it was also converted to a pedestrian bridge and is now one of the city's best landmarks. It does connect the downtown area with City Island which houses recreation areas and a baseball stadium so it still serves a purpose as a bridge but the span that used to continue on to the West Shore has never been replaced.
Keokuk has kind of a similar situation going on , a double decker rail & highway swing bridge of which the rail is still in use but the road deck now is an observation deck. Illinois side road deck is still there but abandoned. Bridge is almost always swung open to accommodate barge traffic, only closing when a train is waiting to pass.
Your memory is confused and has combined the Keokuk & the Fort Madison bridges lol! Ft. Madison still is an operating double decker swing bridge! Keokuk bridge was mostly torn down & has a pedestrian section left where you can watch lock 19 operate (& there is also a hydroelectric plant still operating at that damn). Best regards!
New Tom Scott dropped
Nowadays there's a permanent artistic installation "Bridge to Nowhere" part of the building at the Guthrie Theater / Performing Arts Center in Minneapolis on the Mississippi.
Edit to clarify: the Guthrie is over by the Mill City Museum, St Anthony Falls and Xcel Energy hydropower plant, the Stone Arch Bridge, and the I-35W bridge.
Sincerely,
A lifelong Minnesotan
Aaaand my brain is playing "Road to Nowhere".
I’ve heard about this bridge before! I discovered it when looking along the route of the Chicago Great Western.
"rusty bucket of bolts"
very technical phrase
We have a similar thing in Tampa with the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. The original bridge collapsed after being hit by a carrier ship in 1980. They built the new bridge alongside it and the old bridge was partially demolished and turned into a fishing pier.
This bridge also served as the route of old Highway 100 crossing the Mississippi river to complete the beltline around the Twin Cities metro for a time.
What a great idea!
Super cool!
So this bridge's future changed from "disappear" to "this a pier".
*Cue Road To Nowhere by Talking Heads*
My car only ever goes one way at a time, I have stop to select reverse. What is the worry about cars only going one way at a time?
Probably one of the only people on here that went across that bridge many times when I was little. My dad worked at that refinery. Back then it was called Ashland refinery.
Have you considered le Pont d'Avignon?
I used to ride across this bridge with my parents we could drive across it back then it must have been in the late 90’s just before it closed
reminds me of the the Walkway Over the Hudson a very simalar project in Poughkeepsie, NY
I love the end "Oh, are ja?" in the most Minnesota accent. I'd think it was Maria Bamford doing a bit..
We have one like that in the south San Francisco bay area. When they took out the old Dumbarton vertical lift bridge they left the approaches in place as fishing piers. They eventually removed the west side approach but left the other in place. You can see it here: czcams.com/video/AB23krP4VXU/video.html
You should check out the Chain of Rocks bridge in St. Louis ❤
Yay! More Julian
Lots more inbound!
Took me a second there to figured out what a Tall Bridge was!
did the trains that used the bridge have toilets ? I have been on trains like the Ghan in the 1970s where the bottom of the toilet bowl you could see a pipe going straight down to the railway track.
I was a young lad when the trains were stopped. My grandparents also lived nearby. I never liked being on the bridge with trains because if a barge came through, the traffic stopped. Imagine sitting in your car as a diesel locomotive idles above you. You could JUST cross two cars on the bridge. And as it was the only pedestrian crossing in 40 miles (between St. Paul and Hastings), crossing outside a car was risky for you and annoying for cars. I only ever did it twice. Once east, once west. Since old Wakota would often back up, the Rock was busy on Fridays. The hope that it would reopen fell after 9/11 when Ashland decided they were at risk of attack. And that's my two cents.
I’ve been driving past this for years and never knew
A bridge that only goes half the way sounds like the Öresundsbron between Denmark and Sweden..
Is that the Rock Island Line that the song was about?
As someone who grew up in a small town, I can tell you that a half bridge town is better than a zero bridge town
More accurate non-clickbait title, Why bridge was built into a pier.
Yeah, that bugged me too. I hate being mislead - title is a bit deceptive.
Yeah, it's definitely possible to still have a title that gets people interested, let's people know what your talking about, but isn't clickbait. It's a thin line to walk, but certainly possible.
I don't know what they are called but where I live there are bridges to nowhere except they're really tiny and don't stick out very far into the water. I know they have a different name than bridge so this is basically a giant one of those now.
The remnants of the former Sunshine Skyway is amazing and popular.
Yay more Julian❤❤
Cheers, Jackson!
The Sandridge bridge in your home town underwent a similar transformation
That’s no bridge!
That’s a LONG PIER!
(Bad Star Wars reference)
It needs a theatre at the end like British piers.
Lived in Minneapolis my whole life and never heard of this… fascinating
Glad you liked it.
4:10 See what you did at the end having the start of Road to nowhere by Talking heads
You missed the fact John Dillinger ran across the bridge to flee the police. My boat is in some shots!
Reminds me of the famous Avignon Bridge in France.
Will check it.
Sur le pont d'Avignon ?
@@qwertyTRiG Now you’ve got me singing that song 🎵 🎶 - even though my French lesson days are many many decades ago!!
Fishing yes!
Avignon has half a bridge, and they are extremely proud of it.
We call that a fishing pier where I am from.
0:54 - Showing America the value of a good pair of RM's
RM diplomacy in action.
Polititians: We have created the world's largest fishing pier.
They should paint the metal beams to help protect it from rust
After reading the title...first thought was so it's a pier.....but no boats
I think there's quite a lot of examples of these across the country - old bridges no longer suitable for their original purpose and part of it saved and reused as a fishing pier. There's a couple of examples I can think of in my state. Ideally though, these bridges should be saved in their entirely and converted to pedestrian/bike trail use, and can still incorporate space for fishing.
Should do a video on the freeway to nowhere in Cape Town
I’m up for a Cape Town trip…
OHBOY. Julian in the USA. I wonder what's next!
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Swing Bridge? (nice vid)
I don’t really explain it here. Back in the day a portion could swing open to let ships go through.
In Texas we call that a pier
That's a HAI title if I've ever seen one. Someone tell Sam XD
My guess before watching: Fishing pier and/or boat dock
Fishing lol 🤣
CZcams recommended this video because I live here, kind of weird to see it in a this kind of video, but cool. I feel like you kind of glossed over the part where literally half of the bridge fell into the river.
Bride to heaven