The City of St. Paul desired to build a signature bridge at this location when the old Wabasha Bridge became obsolete. One style that was seriously considered was a cable stayed bridge. While it would have been grand, it would have cost too much. The city settled on a pretty basic bridge style. Once the bridge was built, pastel green and pink trim and lighting as placed all over the bridge to jazz it up a bit. While the bridge opened to traffic in 1998, many of the decorative features and metalwork items were not completed until late 2001.

Note—the National Bridge Inventory considers this to be two separate bridges. The northbound lanes on the east span are assigned NBI number 62555A, while the southbound lanes on the west span are assigned NBI number 62555B.