The Richard I. Bong Bridge is the longest bridge with at least one end touching the State of Minnesota. In Wisconsin, the Daniel Hoan Bridge in Milwaukee is longer, which makes the Bong Bridge be the second longest bridge with at least one end landing in Wisconsin.

The Bong Bridge was built to replace the US-2 Arrowhead Bridge. That bridge was obsolete. In addition, it was often backed up due to the draw spans being open. The two states were also looking for a way to move cargo from the railroad areas without trucks having to go through the downtown areas. Finally, shipping interests were looking for a clear path from Lake Superior to the docks in the far western area of the Saint Louis Bay.

Construction on the Bong Bridge began in 1982, and the structure opened on October 25, 1985. The bridge is mostly a steel girder bridge with a concrete deck. The main span is a large steel tied arch. The bridge features 8,320 feet of structure over water. With approaches, the total elevated span is approximately 11,800 feet.

In the end, the Bong Bridge project was not as successful as was hoped. Both rail and trucking traffic leveled off and dropped in the 1980s, so the bridge traffic did not develop as expected. Industry in the Duluth and Superior area evaporated as heavy industry converted to service work and the lakefront converted to tourism. The road system on the Superior side was never fully developed, so the bridge did not serve as a bypass. Finally, the major docks on the west side of the bridge are nearly all shut down as the steel mill, rolling plants, and foundries in the Gary New Duluth area shut down.

The Bong Bridge is named after WWII hero Richard Ira Bong. Bong lived in nearby Poplar, Wisconsin. He flew the P-38 Lightning fighter plane in the Pacific Theater. He was allowed to retire from combat flying when he broke the record of 26 kills. He later found his way back in combat, and was again pulled from the combat theater after his 40th kill. The military was afraid that Bong was becoming a target, and they didn't want to risk losing their Ace of Aces. Bong relocated to southern California to begin training on jet aircraft. Bong died on April 6, 1945, when his P-80 Shooting Star jet fighter crashed. Some people find it ironic that while Bong fought against the Japanese, and there was a major steel mill located within sight distance of the Bong Bridge, the main span steel was imported from Japan.

The State of Minnesota lists the Bong Bridge as a single entry in the National Bridge Inventory database. Wisconsin, however, lists the bridge as 19 separate sections as follows:

    NBI #B16003800010000, 1.1 Miles West Of State Line, 285 Feet
    NBI #B16003800020000, 1.1 Miles West Of State Line, 144 Feet
    NBI #B16003800030000, 1.0 Miles West Of State Line, 504 Feet
    NBI #B16003800040000, 0.9 Miles West Of State Line, 549 Feet
    NBI #B16003800050000, 0.8 Miles West Of State Line, 402 Feet
    NBI #B16003800060000, 0.7 Miles West Of State Line, 609 Feet
    NBI #B16003800070000, 0.6 Miles West Of State Line, 609 Feet
    NBI #B16003800080000, 0.5 Miles West Of State Line, 427 Feet
    NBI #B16003800090000, 0.4 Miles West Of State Line, 421 Feet
    NBI #B16003800100000, 0.3 Miles West Of State Line, 412 Feet
    NBI #B16003800110000, 0.2 Miles West Of State Line, 412 Feet
    NBI #B16003800120000, 0.0 Miles West Of State Line, 453 Feet
    NBI #B16003800130000, 0.0 Miles West Of State Line, 500 Feet
    NBI #B16003800140000, 0.1 Miles East Of State Line, 570 Feet
    NBI #B16003800150000, 0.2 Miles East Of State Line, 572 Feet
    NBI #B16003800160000, 0.3 Miles East Of State Line, 380 Feet
    NBI #B16003800170000, 0.4 Miles East Of State Line, 380 Feet
    NBI #B16003800180000, 0.5 Miles East Of State Line, 380 Feet
    NBI #B16003800190000, 0.6 Miles East Of State Line, 310 Feet

If you add up these distances, they add up to 8,319, within a foot of the length that Minnesota lists in their NBI entry for the Bong Bridge.

The photo above was taken from a highway overpass behind the Lake Superior Papermill in Duluth. The view is looking southeast. The photo below was taken from Thompson's Hill near the rest area where I-35 and US-2 meet. This view is essentially the angle as above, but shot from a higher elevation.

These two photos were taken from the old Arrowhead Bridge fishing deck in Superior. The view is looking northeast towards Duluth. The wider shot above shows the wide sweeping curves of the bridge, while the close up shot below shows the tied arch in more detail. The railroad bridge in the photo is the BNSF Grassy Point Drawbridge.

These two photos are the start of a crossing of the Bong Bridge heading north from Superior to Duluth. These photos show the entrance roadway to the south end of the bridge. The bridge was intended to flow into a freeway that bypassed Superior. That freeway never materialized, so these connector ramps between the Bong Bridge and Belknap Street have become permanent.

Once we arrive on the bridge proper, we curve to the left (in the photo above), and we curve back to the right before we reach the main channel (in the photo below).

These two photos show the tied arch over the main channel. The arch structure looks enormous as you approach it (in the photo above), but it isn't until you are inside that you can see just how massive it really is. The photo below also shows the suspension cables that are used to suspend the deck from the arch.

After we exit the arch, we travel though a long sweeping curve to the right. In the photo above, we cross the state line shortly after entering this curve. The steam plant for the Lake Superior Papermill can be seen on the left of the roadway (but at the far right edge of the photo). In the photo below, this curve to the right continues as we reach the signs for the exit ramps at the north end of the bridge.

There is one last small curve to the left at the north end of the Bong Bridge. The photo below shows our travel choices. The ramp to the right enters I-35 northbound towards downtown Duluth. The road going straight ahead takes us onto local streets in the West Duluth area of town. A grade level turn to the left just ahead will take us to I-35W heading south towards Thompson's Hill.