The Cedar Avenue Bridge carries Minnesota State Highway 77

Minnesota State Highway 77

Minnesota State Highway 77 is a highway in Minnesota, which runs from its intersection with 138th Street in Apple Valley and continues north to its northern terminus at its interchange with State Highway 62 in Minneapolis. The route is in length...

 across the Minnesota River

Minnesota River

The Minnesota River is a tributary of the Mississippi River, approximately 332 miles long, in the U.S. state of Minnesota. It drains a watershed of nearly , in Minnesota and about in South Dakota and Iowa....

 between the Minneapolis-St. Paul suburbs of Bloomington

Bloomington, Minnesota

Bloomington is the fifth largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota in Hennepin County. Located on the north bank of the Minnesota River above its confluence with the Mississippi River, Bloomington lies at the heart of the southern...

 and Eagan, Minnesota

Eagan, Minnesota

Eagan is a city south of Saint Paul in Dakota County in the U.S. state of Minnesota. The city lies on the south bank of the Minnesota River, upstream from the confluence with the Mississippi River. Eagan and nearby suburbs form the southern portion of Minneapolis-St. Paul, the fifteenth largest...

. The two parallel crossings for northbound and southbound lanes are respectively 5,159 feet (1,572 m) and 5,185 feet (1,580 m) in length. It was built in 1979, superseding an older swing bridge

Swing bridge

A swing bridge is a movable bridge that has as its primary structural support a vertical locating pin and support ring, usually at or near to its centre of gravity, about which the turning span can then pivot horizontally as shown in the animated illustration to the right...

 by the same name that was composed of low-lying truss

Truss

In architecture and structural engineering, a truss is a structure comprising one or more triangular units constructed with straight members whose ends are connected at joints referred to as nodes. External forces and reactions to those forces are considered to act only at the nodes and result in...

 segments.

Other bridges

The original Old Cedar Avenue Bridge was built in 1890. The bridge that stands now was built in 1920 and carried automobile traffic into the 1990s. The narrow span continued operation as a bicycle

Bicycle

A bicycle, also known as a bike, pushbike or cycle, is a human-powered, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, having two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A person who rides a bicycle is called a cyclist, or bicyclist....

 trail until 2002 when it was deemed too unsafe. In 2008, $2 million in state funding was approved to reopen the bridge to bicyclists and pedestrians. Back when the old structure was the main crossing, heavy traffic delays would occur because of the bridge's small size and the need to operate the swing segment to let boat

Boat

A boat is a watercraft of any size designed to float or plane, to provide passage across water. Usually this water will be inland or in protected coastal areas. However, boats such as the whaleboat were designed to be operated from a ship in an offshore environment. In naval terms, a boat is a...

 traffic pass. The modern bridge has three lanes in each direction, in addition to a shoulder which is often used by bus

Bus

A bus is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers. Buses can have a capacity as high as 300 passengers. The most common type of bus is the single-decker bus, with larger loads carried by double-decker buses and articulated buses, and smaller loads carried by midibuses and minibuses; coaches are...

es to get past traffic slowdowns.

At one time, the 10th Avenue Bridge, which crosses the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, was called the "Cedar Avenue Bridge".