CR 101 over Little Cottonwood River, Courtland, Minnesota. County/parish: Blue Earth.
Added to the National Register of Historic Places July 28, 1980. NRIS 80001953.
Part of Blue Earth County MRA (NRIS 64000341).
1 contributing structure.
Marsh Concrete Rainbow Arch Bridge is a reinforced concrete through arch bridge over the Little Cottonwood River in Cambria Township, Minnesota, United States. The bridge is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The bridge no longer carries traffic, which has since been shifted to another bridge to the east.
The bridge was designed by James Barney Marsh and built in 1911, the same year he filed a patent for his rainbow arch design. The structure features two arched ribs, one on each side of the roadway, rising above the deck. The deck is suspended from the arches by vertical risers. To drivers, the visible arch crowns on each side resemble those of a pony truss bridge. The Little Cottonwood River crossing is among the oldest Marsh rainbow arch bridges in the United States. As traffic volumes increased and farm machinery became larger, many of Marsh’s rainbow arch bridges became obsolete because they could not be widened. Only about half a dozen Marsh rainbow arch bridges remain in Minnesota.
(read more...)National Park Service documentation: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/93200086