The Ribbon Cutting
I had followed the development of the bridge for most of my adult life- reading about the development, attending public meetings, at least 20 trips to take photographs. And finally it was time, opening day for the new bridge. I took a few hours off work to come out the ribbon cutting. It was befitting of the scale of the project full of speeches by dignitaries, and was fun to stand on the freeway with my own to feet for the first and last time, Aug 2,2007.
Following the speeches and ribbon cutting, we bordered the shuttle buses. Instead of taking us directly to the park for ice cream, instead the drove us across the bridge and back. I was one of the first couple of hundred members of the public to use the new bridge; a bridge that should still be around in a hundred years.
I ate my ice cream bar at the park and checked my phone and got shocking news. My old high school, Minnehaha Academy had been destroyed in a natural gas explosion and several staff were missing and feared dead. On my way back I just had to stop by and take in the scene from a respectable distance. Time was up on a 100 year old building, a place that meant so much to me
The Official Opening of the New and Closing of the Old
So it was time to go back to work and collect my thoughts the best I could. But there was still more to be done. The official opening had happened, but the real opening of the new bridge, and the temporary closing of the old one for renovation, would be later. At first it was supposed to be a secret, but then word got out: It would be that day, at 8:00. And the I went back there. Rather than wait for the new one to open, I decided to see the old one close. Downtown Stillwater was packed and it was a joyous scene with people hanging out and taking selfies
The last auto to cross carried a gentleman that was part of the opening ceremony for the bridge oh so long ago. His next trip would be across the new, safe, modern bridge. To the very few residents still alive and in town since the 1940s, MnDOT had finally kept their promise. Finally the gates came down and the bridge was closed. It was time to extricate myself and go drive across the new bridge. People was driving slowly back and forth, taking in the scene. The perfect place to capture it was the Wisconsin Highway 35 overpass, where I had been so many times before to take pictures of the construction
A New Life for the Old Bridge
Now it was time to renovate the old bridge into a bicycle and pedestrian facility. I have relatively few photos of that, because sandblasting and replacing cables isn’t nearly as dramatic as building something new, although here’s a “before” photo.
And one from July 2018, showing the progression of work.
Delays happened due to high water and difficulties with repairs. Instead of opening in spring 2019, it opened in summer 2020, the summer cancelled by COVID. Again I was there on opening day. No elaborate speeches. No spaghetti dinner that had been planned on the bridge. At 8:00 AM they simply removed the barricades and people entered, careful to stay 6 feet apart from each other. Despite the circumstances, it was still a joyous mood for 100 or so of us there.
As for my school, I was back for the dedication of the new building in Fall,2019. The library struck me as small; I guess no need for that now but in the pre-internet day I spent virtually all of my free time there reading books. There was now a security guard at the door, something unthinkable when I was there. But it was my school, hopefully set for the next hundred years. Although most had been remodeled inside to the extent the original form was no longer recognizable, one element remained until the end, the north stairway. Before demolition they removed the treads from the stairs that had been trod upon by myself and 100 years of students, and installed them in the new central courtyard, by the two black olive trees that memorialize the lives lost that day.
Part One of this North Star Highways series originally published on streets.mn as Part One, Two, and the first half of Part Three of a four part streets.mn series. Parts Two, Three, and Four of this series are original content exclusive to North Star Highways. Content as it appears on streets.mn offered under Creative Commons noncommercial no derivatives license, copyright asserted on content exclusive to North Star Highways.