Nicollet County highway 37 crosses the Minnesota River at the south end of New Ulm. This steel girder bridge has a very graceful hump shape. It was built that way because the land is relatively flat in the river bottom area, but engineers wanted to keep the bridge from being flooded out during all but the highest floods. At the same time, the roads on either side were not raised as high to prevent this from acting like a large earthen dam during flooding. The net result is a bridge that stays high and dry, but approaches the frequently flood out. The Nicollet County Board of Supervisors is looking at options for raising the approach roads on either side of the bridge, but funding is very tight for such a project.

This 1978 bridge appears to have replaced an older bridge that was located up stream about one-half mile. That bridge would have landed near 12th Street. The approach road on the north side of the river appears to still exist, while roadway on the south side of the river is in an area that appears to have been redeveloped.