The bicycle bridge is sharped like a large letter Z. On the south side of the river, the bridge lands on Fort Snelling State Park near a boat landing. The first section is a concrete girder section that runs at a right angle from the highway bridge. It rises to about 30 feet above the ground. The next section is a steel girder span that climps from the 30 foot level to the 55 foot level. The main span is 350 feet long, and it is built using large rectangular brackets that are attached to the highway bridge. Moving north, the next section is a steel girder span that lowers bicycle traffic from the 55 foot level to the 30 foot level. The final span is again at a right angle to the highway bridge, but this time, the span runs under the highway bridges (rather than away from the highway bridges). This final concrete span lands on an island in the middle of the river very close to the spot where the old Cedar Avenue Swing Bridge used to land.
Once bicycles arrive on the island in the middle of the river, they were expected to use the Long Meadow Bridge span of the Old Cedar Avenue river crossing to cross the remaining water and arrive in Bloomington. That worked very well until the Long Meadow Bridge was found to be too dangerous to remain open to any traffic, so the old bridge was shut down. The Long Meadow Bridge was barricaded on both ends, allowing people to still cross the Cedar Avenue Bicycle Bridge. But so many people took the dangerous step of crossing the old bridge that the Cedar Avenue Bicycle Bridge had to be closed down, a state that it has remained in for 6 years.
The good news is that a replacement bicycle bridge has been approved and funded to replace the Long Meadow Bridge. That means that the river crossing for the bicycle path will once again be open a somepoint in the not too distant future.
