For many years, I thought this bridge crossed the Mississippi River. When driving on MN-55 north from the Fort Snelling area, MN-55 runs right along the Mississippi. There is a pretty wide gorge, so the Veterans Home looks like it is on the other side of the river. In reality, the gorge is from the Minnehaha Creek, and runs just below the Minnehaha Falls to the Mississippi River. The gorge is pretty deep, perhaps 100 feet or more, and the bridge is a pretty healthy sized structure for such a small creek.

In speaking with a local geologist, I learned that the gorge that the Minnehaha Creek runs through was once a channel of the Mississippi River. St. Anthony falls started near where the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers meet near the Airport about 10,000 years ago. The falls was about 180 feet tall. The falls migrated north about 4 feet each year. As the falls passed the area near the present day Old Soldiers Home, a large rock caused the channel to split in two. The falls continued to migrate up the east channel, but it ran into rock and stopped migrating up the west channel. As a result, the river settled into the east channel, leaving the west channel high and dry. The Minnehaha Creek, however, used the west channel as its path for its last mile to the Great River, which is what we see today.

Note—this bridge is in the bonus section since it does not cross one of the 3 major metro area rivers.