Built 1937 NRHP Reference # 98000720 Area 3,642 m² | Architectural style Multi-plate arch Opened 1937 Added to NRHP 26 June 1998 | |
Location MN 23 over Mission Cr., Duluth, Minnesota Architect Bodin, A.A., and Sons; Minnesota Highway Department MPS Iron and Steel Bridges in Minnesota MPS Similar Spirit Mountain, Duluth Entertainment Conventi, Aerial Lift Bridge, Goldstein Museum of Design, Lake Superior Railroad |
Bridge No. 5757 is a bridge on Minnesota State Highway 23 in Duluth, Minnesota listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The bridge, spanning Mission Creek, is in the Fond du Lac neighborhood of Duluth. The bridge was built in 1937 by A. Bodin and Co. It is a double-span, multi-plate arch culvert with granite headwalls. The creek flows through two 20 feet (6.1 m) metal culverts that are 115 feet (35 m) wide.
The bridge has several ornamental features that distinguish it from an ordinary highway bridge. The headwalls and railings are faced with roughly-cut granite rubble in various colors of gray, pink, and tan. The headwalls continue above the roadway to form the railings, which have narrow lancet-like openings that evoke a late Gothic Revival design. While the bridge resembles Federal Relief projects of the 1930s, it was not actually built by a Federal Relief organization such as the Works Progress Administration or the Civilian Conservation Corps. Instead, it was designed by the Minnesota Department of Highways (now the Minnesota Department of Transportation), probably with their chief landscape architect Arthur R. Nichols. It resembles the National Park Service Rustic style popular in Federal Relief architecture, and the excellent stonework is typical of that used in the labor-intensive construction projects of that era.
A 0.75 miles (1.21 km) section of Highway 23 through this area was built as a wide, shaded, parkway-like divided highway. This portion is also known as Veterans' Evergreen Memorial Highway in the Fond du Lac neighborhood of Duluth.