The Minnesota Department of Transportation is gearing up for a reopening celebration this Saturday, Aug. 9. 

The Stone Arch Bridge reopened weeks ahead of schedule in late July after structural construction began in the spring of 2024. 

Minneapolis resident Mason Iverson said he is happy to see the bridge open again, and his favorite time to come to the Stone Arch Bridge is during sunset.

“I really love running across this bridge,” Iverson said. “When the sun is going down and the lights are turning on in all the buildings, it’s a boost of motivation.”

MnDOT event organizer Brenda Morales said the reopening event will feature live entertainment, including a Native American drum group, a chalk painter, and Thai and Native American food.

Morales said MnDOT wants to honor the indigenous Dakota land the bridge was built for this celebration.  

The bridge is nestled between the cobblestone streets and brick buildings of Saint Anthony Main Historic District and the Mill Ruins of the river’s west bank. 

Northeast Minneapolis resident Anna Callahan said she is happy the bridge has reopened. She said she often walks the bridge with her dog and loves all the activity, whether it’s the runners, the bikers or the occasional marriage proposal. 

“It feels like the heart of the city in a lot of ways,” Callahan said.

The bridge draws crowds every summer during the Stone Arch Bridge Festival, which celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2024. The festival, held in June, hosted over 200 artists from across the nation and over 20 musicians. 

Dave Dvorak, a member of the Minneapolis Americana rock band Zoë Says Go, said this was the band’s first year playing at the festival, and though the bridge was still under construction, the festival was well attended and people were in high spirits.

Colin Peters, who plays in the Minneapolis-based band Willows, echoed Dvorak.

“I love seeing Minneapolis so lively,” Peters said. “You’re performing and you look out and there’s downtown, you can count on your hand how many times you get to play in that kind of setting.”

The historic charm and scenic nature of the Stone Arch Bridge are easily noticeable. Roger Hale lives right off Stone Arch and said he walks the bridge often. 

Hale said he remembers a walk he took one particularly snowy night in April, the fresh white snow glowing yellow under the bridge’s street lamps.

“It is my favorite memory of the bridge,” Hale said. “I felt like I was a pioneer.” 

The bridge was completed in 1883 as a railroad bridge for the Minneapolis Union Railroad, according to MnDOT.

Up until the 1930s, the area’s river banks were a growing hub for over a dozen factories, railroad lines and flour mills, said David Smith, who has written historical profiles of more than 180 Minneapolis parks for the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board.

Smith said the last train to go over the bridge was in the late 1970s. After, parks began to open along the banks, including Father Hennepin Bluff Park in 1980, according to The Cultural Landscape Foundation.

The bridge was opened to pedestrian and bicycle traffic in 1994, cementing its status as a city staple. Though it took a century, there were always whispers of park development on the river banks.

The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board formed the same year the bridge was built. 

Smith said that same year, the board reached out to landscape architect Horace Cleveland for help envisioning the future of Minneapolis parks. Cleveland emphasized the potential for the Twin Cities’ river gorge, the only one in the Mississippi, in his blueprint of suggestions for the city’s parks and parkways.

“In 1883, those people had a vision,” Smith said. “They saw what parks could mean to a city.”