19th Century Mississippi River Bridges Series
St. Paul, originally called Pig’s Eye, was founded approximately 13 miles downriver from Minneapolis near Fort Snelling. It was the northernmost access on the navigable river for steamboats on the Mississippi. It was settled on the north (east) bank of the Mississippi, on a bluff overlooking the river with low lands to the south (west bank). In 1849, the city was incorporated, and steamboat landings increased rapidly in the early 1850s. Its population reached almost 5,000 people by 1850. The river at the site was divided by Raspberry Island. Passage across the river was by rope ferries, and it soon became apparent that a bridge was necessary if the city continued to grow. As early as 1849, pressure to build a bridge started, and, in 1854, the Territorial Legislature passed Chapter 30, An Act to Incorporate the Saint Paul Bridge Company, on March 4. Sections 12, 14, 15, and 18 stated in part:
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