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  • A new bridge was built over Minnemishinona Falls on Thursday to allow better access to viewing the falls. The 12-foot-wide steel bow-string truss bridge looms above the 42-foot falls. Trail work needs to be done before the bridge opens to the public in June. Pat Christman

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  • FallsMap

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May 26, 2011

Unique bridge takes waterfall visitors over & above

By Brian Ojanpa Free Press Staff Writer

NORTH MANKATO — A new bridge over Minnemishinona Falls not only will provide waterfall photo opportunities for hikers and bikers, but its bold look may be a Kodak moment in itself.

“It’s unique, to say the least,” Nicollet County Public Works Director Seth Greenwood said of the 160-foot bridge spanning the gorge over the falls.

The bridge, installed in three pieces Thursday as part of a new hiking/biking trail system, likely won’t be open to the public until late June due to rain-delayed trail work.

But when it does open, users will be able to traverse a 12-foot-wide steel bow-string truss bridge looming above the 42-foot falls.

Greenwood said the total cost of the trail and bridge project, which has been years in the making, is just shy of $500,000. Eighty percent of the project cost was funded by federal transportation grant money, with Nicollet County paying 20 percent.

The trail runs from upper North Mankato’s northwest side along County Road 41 for nearly 1.5 miles down to the Judson Bottom Road, where it connects to the county’s Minnemishinona Falls park three miles west of North Mankato.

The county bought the falls site in 2006 with the intent of eventually making it a visitor attraction to rival nearby Minneopa Falls.

The bridge will allow visitors to view the falls from a front-on perspective rather than from the side or by trespassing into the gorge, the latter a problematic occurrence over the years.

The county paid $330,000 for the site with total funding coming from a mix of federal money and a private grant.

The park, with a designated side-view vantage point viewing area for visitors, opened to the public in 2007.

Its opening was delayed until an archaeological study could be completed after a dig the previous year found abundant evidence of Indian habitation along the site, including several burial mounds.

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