Wabasha Street Bridge

ABOUT

The Wabasha Street Bridge is a proposal for a major vehicular and pedestrian crossing over the Mississippi River in downtown St Paul.

The Wabasha Street Bridge’s significance for the city is not only its central location, but also its historic importance as the first river crossing. The initial programme for this project was to reactivate the long ignored river front and create a visual axis across the river and to the mid-river island as part of a wider masterplan for a new park system along the river. The design places primary emphasis on the mid-river island, establishing a superstructure rising from the island to support the road deck with generous secondary walkways that separate the pedestrian experience from vehicular traffic.

This led to the development of a unique twin-mast cable-stay structure, alluding to the geology of the vast river valley. This structure, with a cable-supported torsion box below deck, accommodates a gentle bend in the roadway creating a subtle shift of perspective when crossing the bridge and reinforces the alignment of Wabasha Street, connecting the river visually to the city grid.

The ‘Wabasha Street Bridge’ received the 41st Annual Progressive Architecture Award in 1994.