The Brookside neighborhood in Saint Louis Park is one of the hidden gems of
the west metro area. While the homes in this area are not opulent like
they are downstream in Edina, the houses are well maintained, and the yards
look like something you would see in a home and garden magazine. The home
located just west of the Brookside Avenue Bridge is nestled between this
street bridge and a Soo Line Railroad Bridge. Despite having a narrow and
sloping lot that requires a lot of work to maintain, this yard looks
showroom perfect. If one could pick just one place along the Minnehaha
Creek that is picture postcard perfect, this would be it.
The Brookside Avenue Bridge is a concrete slab bridge. The deck is both
the structural member as well as the driving surface. These bridges are
typically built by pouring concrete on top of a wooden frame, and then the
wood is removed after the concrete has cured. Slab bridges are normally
very routine structures. In this case, the bridge has been dressed up with
lines in the concrete, stonework, and a series of four metal railings.
Add in the sloping lots and the open exposure on the upstream side of the
bridge, and you have one of the most visually interesting structures on
the Minnehaha Creek.
The photo above is looking north along Brookside Avenue towards the
southwest corner of the Brookside Avenue Bridge. The photo below is looking
north down the length of the bridge deck towards the intersection of
Brookside Avenue and Yosemite Avenue. Brookside curves to the west,
while Yosemite continues north.
The photo above is the upstream face of the Brookside Avenue Bridge as seen
from near the southwest corner of the structure. The photo below is the
upstream face of the bridge as seen from the northwest corner of the structure.
In each case, the homeowners allowed me to walk across their lawn to take
these photos.
The photo above is looking south down the length of the bridge deck. The
photo below is looking south along the downstream sidewalk on the east side
of the structure. Note that while the roadway curves to the right in these
two photos, the sidewalk is straight.
