Two identical bridges carry US-2 and US-71 across the Mississippi River on a divided highway built in 1979 that bypasses the city of Bemidji. In this area, the Mississippi River flows from lake to lake. In this case, Carr Lake is just up river, and Lake Irving is just down river. Those directions are a bit deceptive since the river is actually flowing north, so down river is to the north of this location.

Note that the river elevation is 1,339 feet. It will stay this elevation through three lakes, and under a number of bridges in the Bemidji area. The river has already falled 136 feet from Lake Itasca. That drop has occured in 61 river miles, a rate of just over 2 feet per river mile. Amazingly, this 61 river miles covers only 21 air miles, which means that the river drops about 6 feet per air mile of distance, and the river path takes about 3 river miles for each linear mile of distance.

The two photos at the bottom show a typical river crossing from an automobile point of view. The 2nd to last photo is a northbound crossing (west on US-2), while the last photo is crossing southbound (east on US-2).