US Highway 61 was made famous by musician Bob Dylan in his album titled Highway 61 Revisited. The route once ran 1,714 miles from the Canadian border through Duluth, skirted the Mississippi River, and ended in New Orleans. It included several cultural centers such as the Twin Cities, Memphis, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Delta area, home of the American blues music.

In Minnesota, US-61 has been passed over by I-35 north of the Twin Cities. US-61 was truncated at Wyoming in 1991. The roadway north of Wyoming was turned back to state, county, and local jurisdictions. The section north of Duluth along the north shore survives as a state highway, MN-61. The short section near Scanlon, MN, is a county state aid highway, CSAH-61. It is locally important to Carlton County, but no longer is important on a national scale.

The CSAH-61 bridge is a relatively new prestressed concrete girder bridge. The bridge was 21 years old when these photos were taken. The bridge features a wide deck with wide shoulders, the new style angled guardrails, and a separate sidewalk that is protected from the traffic lanes. Despite being downgraded to a county road, the bridge is still pretty busy handling 5,400 vehicles a day.

US-61 was authorized by Congress in 1926. It was largely graded by 1929, and paved south of Duluth by 1929. I-35 was competed south of Duluth in 1971. US-61 was marked on I-35W until the Scanlon exit, where US-61 branched off. The current bridge was built in 1987. US-61 was turned back to Carlton County in 1991, being renumbered to be CSAH-61.