The US-10 bridge is part of a 4-lane bypass around Little Falls. The issue is not that Little Falls is such a large city that it needs a freeway bypass, but rather, Little Falls in centrally located for people traveling in a number of different directions, and the bypass keeps the through traffic off of the quiet city streets.

The main channel bridge, just a few hundred feet north on US-10, is nealry 1,000 feet long. Not so for this little back channel structure. It is only 80 feet long. While the main bridge has a number of piers and spans, this little back channel bridge crosses this branch of the Mississippi River in a single leap. It is interesting that the main channel bridge has steel girders, but this small back channel bridge has concrete girders. One would think that the bridge builders would have just ordered up 80 more feet of steel and called it good.

A Mississippi River crossing that is made up of two or more bridges is not all that unusual, at least no on the Upper Mississippi River. This is the only case that I am aware of in the Headwaters Region where a Mississippi River crossing has more than one bridge. The photo below is the westbound crossing, while the bottom photo is an eastbound crossing.