🔁 Corkscrew Bridge, Bus Bill & Coach Controversy

Good morning, South Metro.

What's inside:

Dinner Club: 5 spots left at Gary's, signups close Tuesday 6:30pm
Burnsville bus bill: $3 door-to-door service could be handed to Metro Transit
Lakeville school board: fired coach, 15% insurance hike, $20M bond sale
Hastings' spiral bridge: the only corkscrew in America, demolished in 1951
17+ Easter egg hunts mapped across 9 cities

The Dakota County Courthouse in Hastings was built in

1849

1857

1871

1900

South Metro Dinner Club Has 5 Spots Left at Gary's

We're almost full for the April 2nd dinner at Gary's Supper Club. 5 spots left, then signups close.

Quick refresher if you missed it: South Metro Scoop Dinner Club matches you with 5 locals based on your age and interests, handles the planning, and you just show up. Classic setting, great food, zero awkwardness.

$16 reserves your spot. You cover your own dinner that night.

Signups close Tuesday at 6:30 PM no exceptions.

Take The Quiz

A Bill at the Capitol Could Kill Burnsville's Bus System

The $3 door-to-door ride service, the express buses, all of it — potentially handed over to Metro Transit by 2027. Council members say the bill is based on bad data, and they're asking residents to act now.

Read About the Bill

Lakeville's School Board: A Coach Controversy, a 15% Insurance Hike, and a $20M Bond Sale

A fired coach with 30 supporters in the room, a 15% health insurance hike for all district staff, a $20 million bond sale, and a 4-2 policy split that had board members going at it. Here's everything that happened.

Read About the School Board Meeting

THE BRIDGE THAT CORKSCREWED INTO DOWNTOWN

HASTINGS ONCE HAD A BRIDGE so strange that people drove from across the country just to cross it.

You'd come off the Mississippi River 60 feet in the air, then spiral down in a complete circle—like a corkscrew, like a parking garage ramp, like nothing anyone had ever built before. One full loop, and you'd land on Sibley Street, half a block from downtown.

It was the only bridge of its kind in America. Possibly the world. And they blew it up in 1951.

THE PROBLEM

In the 1890s, Hastings had a problem.

The town sat on the Mississippi. Steamboats came and went. A rope ferry got people across, but it was slow and couldn't handle the traffic. They needed a bridge.

Here's the catch: the bridge had to be high enough for steamboats to pass underneath—about 55 feet of clearance. But on the Hastings side, there's a bluff. A normal bridge approach would extend so far south that it would bypass downtown entirely. Wagons and horses would cross the river and never see Second Street.

The businessmen of Hastings were not going to let that happen.

THE SOLUTION

Someone—and nobody agrees who—came up with the spiral.

Instead of a long straight ramp, the bridge would corkscrew down. You'd cross the river at full height, then loop around once, descending 60 feet in 385 feet of roadway, and exit right onto Sibley Street. Downtown. Problem solved.

The Wisconsin Bridge and Iron Works of Milwaukee built it in seven months for $39,050. A Baltimore truss with a curved top chord, nearly 2,000 feet long, with the spiral approach tacked onto the south end like an afterthought—except it was the whole point.

April 17, 1895: eight thousand people showed up for the opening. The town's population was 3,848.

WHO DESIGNED IT?

Four men claimed credit. The argument played out in local newspapers for decades.

Oscar Claussen, the supervising engineer. John Geist, chief engineer for Wisconsin Bridge and Iron. Hastings businessman John Meloy. A local inventor named B.D. Cadwell. Lawrence H. Johnson, a former Speaker of the Minnesota House, said he suggested it based on a design originally meant for Winona.

One legend says it was designed by an inmate at Stillwater Prison.

Nobody knows for sure. But whoever drew it up, they created something that made Hastings famous.

THE DECLINE

The bridge was built for horses. Then came cars.

By the 1940s, the spiral was rusted and sagging. The weight limit dropped to 4 tons. School buses were too heavy—kids had to get out and walk across while the driver drove the empty bus over alone.

The Dakota County Historical Society tried to save it. Attorney David Grannis Jr. presented a resolution to the state asking to preserve the approach. A bill passed both the Senate and the House.

Governor Luther Youngdahl pocket-vetoed it after Hastings businessmen lobbied against preservation. They wanted a modern bridge. They got one—and the spiral came down.

In 1951, they demolished it. The replacement cost $2.5 million. The spiral had cost $39,050.

WHAT'S LEFT

The spiral is gone. But not entirely.

A granite monument marks the site at the north end of Sibley Street, near the American Legion. You can stand where the spiral used to rise 60 feet above you.

A quarter-scale replica exists at the Little Log House Pioneer Village, about 8 miles south of Hastings off Highway 61 on 220th Street East. They built it using parts from old truss bridges, including one from Lac Qui Parle County. You can walk across it.

And in Rendsburg, Germany, there's a railroad viaduct built in 1913 with a spiral approach. The engineer, Friedrich Voss, used the Hastings bridge as his reference. The German spiral still operates today.

The original didn't survive. But the idea did.

🐣 Easter Egg Hunts Are Here

We've been tracking egg hunts across the south metro for weeks now, and the list keeps growing.

We're up to 17+ hunts across 9 cities, including a couple new ones we just added. Nighttime flashlight hunts, 17,000+ eggs at a single event, baby goats, a water park egg hunt, and a week-long golden egg scavenger hunt through city parks.

Most of them are completely free. Easter's right around the corner, don't sleep on this one.

View Easter Egg Hunts

8140 134th St W, Apple Valley

➡️ 5 bed, 4.5 bath, 1.26 acres
➡️ 4-car heated garage, finished basement & 4 fireplaces
➡️ Heated pool, indoor grill, vaulted ceilings & cul-de-sac lot
➡️ 7,296 sq ft in Chateau Estates

Price: $1,800,000

MLS #7041152

ADD AN EVENT

FEATURE AN EVENT

Monday 30th

Cardboard Creations (Farmington)
Free hands-on program at Farmington Library at 2pm where kids turn cardboard into creative masterpieces, imaginations required. Build it.

Hastings Tastings (Hastings)
The 29th annual Hastings Tastings at Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Church starting at 4:30pm, nearly three decades of delicious and it just keeps getting better. Taste local.

Sip & Sourdough Class at North 20 Brewing (Rosemount)
Learn the art of sourdough while sipping craft beer at North 20 at 6pm, the perfect Monday night combo of carbs and hops. Rise up.

Tuesday 31st

Mario Kart Showdown at OMNI (Rosemount)
Grab a controller and a pint at OMNI Brewing at 6pm for a Mario Kart showdown, blue shells and craft beer have never paired better. Let’s a go.

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Thanks for reading!

Stay tuned for our next newsletter going out every Monday & Thursday morning.

— Brady Greenbush
Publisher & Editor

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🔁 Corkscrew Bridge, Bus Bill & Coach Controversy

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