Prescott Drawbridge

Prescott Drawbridge
The bridge in 2009
Coordinates44°44′56″N 92°48′17″W / 44.74889°N 92.80472°W / 44.74889; -92.80472
Carries US 10
CrossesSt. Croix River (Wisconsin-Minnesota)
LocalePrescott, Wisconsin and Denmark Township, Minnesota
Official namePrescott Highway Bridge
Other name(s)Prescott Drawbridge
ID number82010
Characteristics
Designsteel girder with double-leaf bascule draw span
Total length672 feet (205 m)
Width54 feet (16 m), 4 lanes
Height20 feet (6.1 m)
History
Opened1990
Statistics
Daily traffic13000/day
Location
Map

The Prescott Drawbridge, also called the Point Douglas Drawbridge, is a steel girder bridge with a double-leaf bascule drawbridge section. The roadbed of the drawbridge span is a steel grate. The bridge carries U.S. 10 across the St. Croix River and connects Prescott, Wisconsin, with the Point Douglas park area of Denmark Township, Minnesota. This is the only highway drawbridge in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul area with active traffic. It was completed in 1990 and replaced a rare regional example of a Waddell & Harrington vertical-lift bridge completed in 1922 that operated as a toll bridge from 1923 to 1946.[1] The environmental impact statement, published in 1979, considered a higher level fixed bridge at this location.[2]

Adjacent to the road bridge, the BNSF Railway St. Croix Subdivision crosses the St. Croix river on a Vertical-lift bridge.

  1. ^ Beeler, Mary Cotter; Ahlgren, Dorothy Eaton (1996). A History of Prescott, Wisconsin: A River City and Farming Community on the St. Croix and Mississippi. United States: Prescott Area Historical Society.
  2. ^ Administrative Action Draft Environmental Impact Statement for Trunk Highway 10 in Washington County, Minnesota and Pierce County, Wisconsin: From H.T. 61 in Denmark Township, Minnesota to One-half Mile East of Jct. Highways 29 and 10 in Oak Grove Township, Wisconsin (Report). United States: Wisconsin Department of Transportation. 1979.