# Stillwater Lift Bridge *Vertical-lift highway bridge built in 1931, closed to vehicle traffic in 2017.* The Stillwater Lift Bridge takes its name from [[Stillwater]], [[Minnesota]]. It is a vertical-lift highway bridge built in 1931.[^1] The Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) carries the bridge in its historic-bridge inventory. That entry names Waddell and Harrington in connection with the structure and lists it as one of six vertical-lift highway bridges built in Minnesota and Wisconsin before the Second World War.[^1] The bridge's vehicle service ended in 2017. The replacement St. Croix River bridge opened on the evening of Wednesday, August 2, 2017, at a project cost of $646 million.[^2][^3] That evening MnDOT closed the 86-year-old lift bridge to vehicle traffic. The 2017 report said the bridge would reopen later for pedestrian and bicycle use.[^2] ## What - The bridge is a vertical-lift highway bridge dating from 1931. It is one of six such bridges built in Minnesota and Wisconsin before the Second World War.[^1] - MnDOT's historic-bridge inventory names Waddell and Harrington in connection with the 1931 structure.[^1] - MnDOT closed the bridge to vehicles when its replacement opened in 2017.[^2] ## When - 1931: the lift bridge was built.[^1] - Evening of Wednesday, August 2, 2017: the replacement St. Croix River bridge opened, and MnDOT closed the lift bridge to vehicle traffic the same evening.[^2] ## Where - Vehicle traffic moved to the St. Croix River bridge, which MnDOT built as a replacement project and documents on its own project site.[^3][^2] ## How much - The replacement project cost $646 million, as reported at its opening on August 2, 2017.[^2] ## How many - Six vertical-lift highway bridges were built in Minnesota and Wisconsin before the Second World War, and this bridge is one of them.[^1] - The lift bridge carried vehicle traffic for 86 years, from 1931 to 2017.[^1][^2] ## In the at-issue record The project's at-issue item AI-Washington-088 appears in the section *The Referral Architecture & the County That Got the Prison Edition*. Its primary anchor is MnDOT's historic-bridge inventory.[^1] The item records the following facts: - The bridge was built in 1931.[^1] - It carried highway traffic for eighty-six years.[^2] - It closed to vehicles on the day the $646 million replacement opened.[^2] - It is one of six vertical-lift highway bridges of its kind built in the two states before the Second World War.[^1] The item also states that the state kept the old bridge as a bike path. The 2017 opening report described pedestrian and bicycle use as a later reopening, so it supports that use only as a plan as of that date.[^2] ## Notes [^1]: Minnesota Department of Transportation, *Historic bridges: Stillwater Lift Bridge* (undated) — inventory record of the 1931 vertical-lift highway bridge, naming Waddell and Harrington and listing it as one of six pre–Second World War vertical-lift highway bridges in Minnesota and Wisconsin. https://www.dot.state.mn.us/historicbridges/4654.html [^2]: CBS Minnesota, *St. Croix River bridge opens* (2017) — reports the opening on Wednesday evening, August 2, 2017; the $646 million project cost; and MnDOT's simultaneous closure of the 86-year-old Stillwater Lift Bridge to vehicle traffic, to reopen later for pedestrian and bicycle use. https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/st-croix-river-bridge-opens [^3]: Minnesota Department of Transportation, *St. Croix Crossing* (project site, undated) — MnDOT's project site for the replacement crossing. https://www.dot.state.mn.us/stcroixcrossing/