The undeveloped areas of the Mississippi River gorge have a number of trails running though them, some marked, others just happen as people use a particular path over time. The area under the Dartmouth Bridge is very narrow, and is prone to rock slides. When the Dartmouth Bridge was rebuilt, a rock slide made the existing path unusable. To fix the problem, the City of Minneapolis Parks Dept. contracted to have a prefabricated bridge installed to run along the river shore. This would allow the trail to safely traverse the unstable area, and also make the trail safe at high water when there is almost no space between the rock face and the river.

Early in the morning on August 29, 2007, a drunk driver somehow ended up driving a 2 week old borrowed Cadillac Escalade onto the north end of this bridge. The vehicle made it about 360 feet down the bridge before it became hopelessly wedged between the railings. The driver then fled the scene. A towing company worked for several hours later that morning to remove the SUV from the pedestrian bridge. The $68,000 vehicle appears to be a total loss. The bridge suffered some damage, mostly broken railings.

Note—this bridge is in the bonus section since it does not cross the main channel of the Mississippi. Rather, it runs linear to the river on its east shore.