This bridge is located just south of Little Falls, where it crosses the river on a diagonal from southeast to northwest. It is part of the very heavily used BNSF mainline from Minneapolis to points west. The route follows US-10 west of the Twin Cities, crosses the river at Little Falls, then heads towards Staples, where it joins the Duluth to Fargo mainline.

Little Falls exists because of the railroad. It was founded in 1871 by the Northern Pacific Railroad. The first river crossing at this location was a ferry started in 1868. A wood trestle was built in 1877 by the NP. It was replaced in with a wooden through truss bridge, which was later replaced by a plate deck girder bridge. That bridge was replaced by the current pre-stressed concrete girder bridge.