Washington Avenue Bridge

The Washington Avenue Bridge carries County Road 122 and the METRO Green Line light rail across the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Minnesota and connects the East Bank and West Bank portions of the University of Minnesota's main campus. The bridge has two decks, with the lower deck designated for motor vehicle traffic and light rail trains and the upper deck used for pedestrians and bicycles (lanes specifically for bikes are on the north side). It is a utilitarian structure with simple architecture, but it has cultural significance because thousands of students, faculty, staff, and visitors walk across it every day.Most users of the bridge get across it using some mode other than a personal automobile. Mn/DOT traffic counts from 2007 show the bridge carried about 28,400 vehicles per day at that time. However, multiple counts from 2009 indicate the bridge carried a total of 71,400 people per day when other modes were also included. The greatest single mode was still motor vehicles at 37.6%, but 32.7% used bus transit, 19.9% walked, and 9.6% used bicycles, with a remaining 0.3% using other methods such as inline skating. The bridge is a cycling hot spot and, with 6,850 riders per day, may carry more bikes than any other route in Minneapolis.In 2011, as part of construction for the METRO Green Line light rail, reconfiguration of the bridge began. The original two eastbound and westbound traffic lanes were permanently reduced to one lane eastbound and one lane westbound, using the outside lanes. The two inside (center) lanes are now dedicated to light rail. The light rail line opened on June 14, 2014.