Historic Bridges Fail to Withstand Raging Rivers in Minnesota
Rivers raging with excess spring snowmelt and rainfall have all combined to cause trouble for several historic bridges in Minnesota.
You gotta respect Mother Nature here in Minnesota, right? A year ago, much of the state was embroiled in a massive drought that caused many rivers, streams, and waterfalls to slow to a trickle. On top of that, lightning strikes then sparked several massive wildfires that charred thousands of dry acres of forest.
And, now this Spring, it's pretty much the exact opposite up on Minnesota's North Shore, where raging rivers have now damaged several historic covered bridges near the town of Lutsen. (Lutsen is a little over 300 miles, or about 5 hours, northeast of Rochester along Highway-61.)
One river, in particular, has been the culprit: The Poplar River, which flows through Lutsen Resort, has been raging this spring, as all that extra water from spring snowmelt and rainfall makes its way toward Lake Superior. The river ended up inflicting some serious damage on both of Lutsen Resort's historic covered bridges.
The problem, Lutsen Resort wrote in a post on their Facebook page, wasn't the water itself. It was instead the massive, full-grown trees that were washed away in the raging water and then made their way downstream smack into those covered bridges.
"The bridges themselves were extremely well built; however there is no match for the full-grown trees that were washed away and barreled down the river towards the bridges," Lutsen Resorts wrote on their Facebook page.
Luckily, the post continued, Lutsen Resorts believes the underlying bridge infrastructure is still intact enough that crews will be able to make repairs to both spans-- once the water stops raging.
"We are thankful that key pieces are still intact and remain hopeful that enough critical infrastructure has not been damaged so we can repair both bridges that are so very much an important part of Luten's history," the post said, noting that management is committed to saving the bridges 'at all cost.'
You can check out a video of what some of those raging rivers look like right now up on the North Shore below. And you can check out the Lutsen Resort Facebook page HERE.
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