The US-14 Bridge at Mankato was built in 1976 when US-14 was rerouted away from downtown to a bypass around the north side of the city. When first built, the bypass was used mostly by local traffic, so the bridge was not heavily used. The freeway was later extended east until it covered about half the distance between Mankato and I-35. At that time, the bypass around Mankato became much more useful, and traffic volumes climbed significantly. Today, US-14 is a very busy regional thruway as well as a major route for traffic to and from Mankato.

US-14 is being developed as a cross-state freeway that is the next rung on a highway ladder north of I-90 near the state line and US-20 in Iowa. US-14 is freeway or expressway starting at I-90 and running south and west of Rochester until it covers about half the distance to I-35. There is a short section of US-14 freeway at I-35. The next section of US-14 freeway starts halfway between I-35 and Mankato, and runs around the north side of Mankato, and then ends just west of North Mankato. MN-DOT is working on the section between I-35 and Mankato with construction starting in the summer of 2008. The section west of Mankato to New Ulm including a second Minnesota River crossing is high on the agenda due to the current road having a very high accident and death rate.

There are regional trails below each end of this bridge. The problem is that there are no parking areas for the trails anywhere near the bridge. The west side has a parking area about a mile to the north. Beyond that, one needs to find city streets near the trail to park. It would be nice if a few trailhead parking areas were developed along the riverfront.

The photos above and below are views looking north from the regional trail that runs along the west side of the Minnesota River. The photo above is a close view of the river spans, while the photo below is an overview of the river crossing.

These two photos are views from the regional trail that runs under the east end of the structure. The photo above is a view looking down the upriver south face of the bridge, while the photo below is a view looking down the downriver north face of the bridge.

These two photos show a typical river crossing heading westbound on US-14. The photo above is just entering the east end of the bridge. The photo below is a view from the middle of the river crossing. The interchange at the west end of the bridge is for US-169.