The other day, I decided I had a favorite bridge across I-94: the 3rd Ave bridge in Minneapolis.
The best bridge over I-94 in the Cities, in my humble opinion. (Source: Google Maps.)
I love it! The cedar-inspired light installations, the wide sidewalks, the nice railings, the feeling of being welcomed into the city center. So, obviously, I have to have a least-favorite bridge, right? There are a good number of contenders for this spot. But I wanted to take stock of all the bridges, to see if there were some real stinkers I overlooked.
Wikipedia has a list of exits off I-94 in Minnesota, but not a list of bridges. I couldn’t find a definitive list of accesses over the freeway anywhere online. Plenty of information about bridges that 94 itself is comprised of, but not accesses across it. It’s always nice to be reminded of where I stand in relation to car culture. To me, the freeway is a screaming, howling, smelly void that sometimes the bus goes on, but mostly is in the way when I want to get from point A to point B.
I fired up my trusty web browser and decided to undertake a manual inspection of satellite photos to help me come up with a list, and then rank them. I have some comments for most of them; scroll to the bottom for the Official Unofficial Ranking.
From west to east, I found:
| 53rd Ave N | Never been on it, but crossing 94 and two branches of Lyndale in one go sounds like a death trap to me. |
| 49th Ave N | Same. |
| 45th Ave N | Small path under, no cars. Seems much nicer than the previous two options, but not exactly near them. |
| Shingle Creek | Cute looking tunnel, but it’s on a winding path that tells me “this isn’t for travel, only for recreation” which, eh. |
| 42nd Ave N | I’ve crossed here like once, and that was not a great time. Maybe the protected sidewalk is nicer. Bonus for crossing the river with the same bridge, I guess. |
| N Washington Ave | Painted bike lanes, not quite “you tried” – more like “there was an attempt”. |
| N Dowling Ave | Aaaaaaa. |
| Lowry Ave N | I always love it when the bike lanes go right up to the bridge, disappear, then reappear on the other side like you’re supposed to teleport across somehow. |
| N 26th Ave | Zzzzzzzzz. |
| W Broadway | This looks like a quarter mile of hellscape to me. |
| Plymouth Ave | Well-maintained bike path, but walking here probably sucks. |
| East Lyndale Ave N | I think this is only for cars, though a friend told me she would bike on it when she was late to work, which, WHEW that’s gutsy. |
| N 7th St | This whole street feels weird and unnecessary, like it used to be a rail line or something? Idk. |
| Olson Memorial Hwy | No. |
| Glenwood Ave | I think people live in this underpass? |
| Cedar Lake Trail | Yay for trail access tunnel, boo for me getting lost and turned around in this exact spot like every damn time I’m near it. |
| 394 | Hisss. |
| Dunwoody Blvd | Inadvisable. |
| Loring Greenway | Nice and scenic, connecting two parks. Too bad there’s a freeway underneath it. |
| Lowry Hill Tunnel!! | The best place for a freeway is underground where no one has to see it ever. |
| Oak Grove/Vineland | Lots of lanes of cars to manage here even though the freeway is underground. |
| Groveland Ave | Lots of lanes still. And the drivers feel very entitled here. Lyndale… |
| Another thing labeled “Loring Greenway” but which we all know is the Bryant Ave Bike Bridge | I’d like to love this bridge more, but one time in May before they’d done a sweep, I took the hairpin turn a little too fast and wiped out on some sand. Lots of deep road rash. |
| Groveland Ave | Again, apparently? You’d think I’d have known about this one, but I did not. Further inspection reveals that holy shit this is horrible, the sidewalks may not even be wide enough for wheelchairs??? Wow! No wonder I never knew about it!!! |
| Lasalle Ave | Some of the highest-stress dashed lane-indicated access, but still useable. |
| Nicollet Ave | Calmer than LaSalle if you get in full “I’m A Vehicular Cyclist, Dammit” mode. Not great to walk. |
| 1st Ave | Ehhh. |
| 3rd Ave | See above praises! |
| 35W | Hisssss. |
| Portland Ave | Extremely boring. |
| Park Ave | Bog-standard matching bridge. |
| Chicago Ave | I am once again reminded that there was a redlined community here that was literally bulldozed to build a freeway. |
| 11th Ave | At first pass, this is my least favorite bridge. Narrow sidewalks, fast cars, views to the east are of a huge void of car lane spaghetti where there used to be homes, chain link fence. This whole thing just… It feels like no one cares about this part of the city when you cross this bridge. |
| Hiawatha Trail | Love the trail. Today I learned that that huge concrete roof that shows up around the train storage area is actually the freeway. Oh, there’s a community garden nearby? Hmm. |
| Cedar Ave | That’s a no from me. |
| 20th Ave | Looks gnarly. Would avoid. |
| Murphy Square Park | I haven’t used this ped bridge myself, but hey, it’s a bridge connecting apartments to a park. Seems nice. [Editor’s Note: This bridge, called the 22nd Ave. bridge by MNDOT, was damaged beyond repair last summer by an overheight truck on 94. Inexplicably, the truck continued east down the freeway and also damaged the 25th Ave. and Riverside Ave. overpasses. The 22nd Ave. bridge was replaced by a temporary wooden structure, which will be there indefinitely. The other two have already been repaired.] |
| 25th Ave S | No thank you. Two freeway onramp roads in addition to the freeway itself? Ew. |
| Riverside Ave | Bike lane is a solid painted effort. Still looks rough. |
| Franklin Terrace | Hey look, there are two parks right here. |
| W River Parkway/Multi-use trail | Plus points for being next to the river, minus points for bringing noisy and smelly cars to the river. |
| E River Parkway/Multi-use trail | Same, but now I’m laughing thinking that all these massive concrete structures over my head on these paths are actually car infrastructure. |
| 27th Ave SE | I almost crossed here once on a bike and decided my life was not worth that little. |
| Franklin Ave SE | Nice, because you get to go across the Franklin Ave bridge over the river nearby, which is SUCH a nice bridge over the river with the little sense-of-community crossing counter. |
| Chergosky Park | Another ped bridge originating from a park. Seems nice but why are there so many parks next to the freeway? |
| Pelham Blvd | Bonus for crossing some train tracks too. That’s probably cool to look at. |
| Vandalia St | A golf course? That’s different. |
| Cleveland Ave N | Painted buffers in the bike lanes! I wonder if they get snow protection seasonally. |
| Prior Ave | This one has a community garden nearby. I guess as long as you’re not gardening vegetables for people to eat? And another park on the other side. I didn’t expect this post to start laying in to putting parks for kids to play in next to a prime producer of pollutants in our cities, but here we are. |
| Fairview Ave | I am confused about why Fairview Ave N doesn’t continue straight through here. There could have been houses on this land, but instead there’s a wide road. Hmm. |
| Aldine St/Concordia Ave | Wiggly pedestrian bridge. Looks cute and maybe a little higher budget than the catwalk-with-chain-link-fence style. |
| Snelling Ave | I cross this often enough to have developed a hate for it; see Pat’s post for why. |
| Pascal St | I’d say “avoid” but you don’t have better options nearby. |
| Hamline Ave | You’d think Concordia students would want to be able to get to the Target safely but maybe this bridge works good enough for them. |
| Griggs St | Little pedestrian bridge with, you guessed it, a park. |
| Lexington Pkwy | No thank you. |
| Chatsworth St | Pedestrian bridge, no park though. Wonder who got it installed, then! |
| Victoria St | Community garden. |
| Grotto St | Pedestrian bridge, no park. |
| Dale St | Walking, maybe. There’s a park. |
| Mackubin St | Looks like it’s to connect to a school just on the other side. I wanted to “street view” this bridge to provide a better review but of course, there’s coverage on the freeway but none on the ped bridge. Anyway, the bridge looks nice enough. |
| Western Ave | Sure, okay. |
| Marion St/Kellogg Blvd | Yuck. |
| John Ireland Blvd | Basically a small freeway lid with planted grass, and for that I respect it. |
| St Peter St | This isn’t “for” anyone not in a car (though the capitol city bikeway project may soon be changing that!) |
| Wabasha St | Cedar St is right there. Just don’t. |
| Cedar St | Train crosses here AND the protecting windows/ceiling make this a top-tier bridge. Just what you’d expect from the one you can see from the capitol building! |
| Minnesota St | A trap. Doesn’t go through to the capitol complex despite it looking like it should. You can’t go back once you start that direction and you’re forced on to the glorified freeway onramp that is 12th St. The sidewalks are fake – they don’t connect to anything at all on either side of the bridge. Sincerely, avoid Minnesota St at all costs. This might actually be my least favorite bridge. |
| Jackson St | Nice bikeway!! And it’s on the west side of the bridge so you don’t have to face the obscene car-lane spaghetti that you do on 11th St in Minneapolis. |
| 9th St E | Hellscape-ish. There’s apparently more St Paul downtown over here, isolated from the rest of downtown by two freeways. Oof. |
| E 7th St | Some kind of bridge to … Somewhere. |
| Hwy 52 | ????? Hissss. |
| Kellogg Blvd | It’s ridiculous that a single street has to bridge the void twice. |
| Mounds Blvd | I can’t tell if this is a freeway or a street, so. |
| Maple St/Mound St | Small pedestrian bridge. |
| Earl St | Satellite has bridge looking in real bad shape. Streetview shows a real snoozer of a bridge. |
| Johnson Pkwy | The cars probably go real fast here. Idk, it might be a nice little tunnel though. |
| Etna St | This might actually be a freeway? |
| Hudson Rd | Pedestrian bridge – this looks to be the 100% CLASSIC chain link enclosure in disrepair. Punk in its own way, but punk is not typically what one wants out of a bridge. |
| White Bear Ave | This intersection belongs out in white bear lake imho. |
| Ruth St N | Very suburban. |
| McKnight Rd | Scenic overlook of a retention pond. Mmm. |
And we’re out of Saint Paul!
After compiling that list, I present to you the top 5 Best and 5 Worst ways to cross the screaming void that is 94.
Best:
3rd Ave in Minneapolis
Cedar St in St Paul
Hiawatha Trail
Jackson St
Franklin Ave SE
Worst bridges that you can technically use when you’re not in a car:
Minnesota St
East Lyndale Ave N
27th Ave SE
11th Ave S
Groveland Ave
Further reading: Bill Lindeke’s post on Rethinking I-94.
Did I leave your favorite bridge off the rankings? Sounds off in the comments!
Stay tuned next time for a ranking of bridges over 35W/E!