Seattle visitors like to “take in” the touristy things in Minnesota so I took my recent guests to the Stone Arch Bridge (a former railroad bridge that crosses the Mississippi River and has a lock and dam) in Minneapolis after we took a walk at the Lake of the Isles.
Getting to the Stone Arch Bridge was a little confusing as there was only one sign and after it pointed you in one direction it didn’t give any more directions to follow.
We did manage to find it but, unfortunately, we parked a couple of blocks away because it didn’t look like there was any parking due to construction that was going on. Since it was such a beautiful day it didn’t much matter.
Once we arrived, a sign pointed us to the visitor center but alas! there was nothing there except an open space that was being used as a “gathering” place for those who wanted to take a tour (which we did not).
With no good directions to follow, we didn’t know whether to go left or right so after heading back to the “entrance” we went to the right and after a little we found the parking lot. Looking at a map we determined that we really wanted to go the opposite direction. Â What a bother!
We finally came across a paved path that we followed and after a little ways it brought us to the “locks.”
Walking a little further on the path, we came across the “falls” which were impressive to me with the water gushing down — not quite the Niagara Falls but “good enough.”
There are 21 stone arches here and one can see some of them while driving on the highway. Very picturesque!
It is definitely not the Lake Union locks in Seattle with its fish ladders and occasional sea lion but overall I’m glad we went even though there is much work to do here to attract more visitors.
- First, they really need additional signs so that people can find this place.
- Second, they need to make it wheelchair accessible. I would love to take my future visitors here but a lot of them would have trouble negotiating the area (even without the construction).
To read more information on The Stone Arch Bridge you can click here to read the Wikipedia article.
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