Prescott Lift Bridge

The Prescott Lift Bridge carries BNSF's St. Croix Subdivision over the St. Croix River at the point where it empties into the Mississippi, and the City of Prescott has a park right beside the tracks. Mercord Mill Park is a 4-acre city park off Front Street, south of the US Highway 10 bridge, along both rivers, and it connects to the Prescott River Walk. From its riverside path near the Old Abe sculpture, about 90 m (300 ft) east of the lift span, the steel truss, the bridge tender's tower and the approach are all in view.

Just east of the bridge the line crosses Kinnickinnic Street at grade (FRA crossing 098035Y). The two Steel Highway railcams sponsored by Scab's Place watch this crossing, the bridge and the confluence, so you can check the live feed before driving out.

John Weeks, who documented the bridge in detail, sums up the appeal: given the volume of trains and the public parking right next to the tracks, it is a great place to go train watching.

A full visit combines three viewpoints: the park for the upstream face, the River Walk and marina on the Mississippi side for the downstream face, and the US Highway 10 bridge for an elevated look along the line toward Minnesota.

Prescott sits on the point where the St. Croix meets the Mississippi, and the railroad bridge spans the last stretch of the St. Croix, listed as Mile 0.2 of the river in the federal drawbridge rules. The Minnesota shore at Point Douglas faces the town across the channel, and the US Highway 10 bridge runs parallel just upstream, so two movable bridges frame the view.

The railroad bridge is a steel through truss with a vertical lift span, about 190 m (630 ft) long according to Bridgehunter. Weeks gives the navigation channel as about 65 m (215 ft) wide, with roughly 6 m (20 ft) of clearance above the water when the span is down, and a tower for the bridge tender at the Wisconsin end. Below the park lie a public fishing dock and picnic shelter; south of the tracks, a marina and the River Walk follow the Mississippi shore.

The park keeps a relic of the older highway crossing: the gear house of the 1923 highway lift bridge, restored in 1991 and open for viewing on weekends (City of Prescott). In summer the rivers fill with pleasure boats and the span works often; in winter navigation stops and the span rises only on 24 hours' notice.

The current bridge dates from 1984 (Weeks, Bridgehunter and Wikimedia Commons agree). It replaced a swing span built by the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad (Weeks); Bridgehunter lists that earlier Warren through-truss swing bridge as built in 1906 by the King Bridge Company and removed in 1984. Weeks also points out where the abutment of the old swing span stood in the channel.

The St. Croix Subdivision is the Burlington's former route along the Wisconsin shore of the Mississippi between La Crosse and the Twin Cities. It passed to Burlington Northern in 1970 and to BNSF in 1995. West of the bridge, the line meets CPKC's River Subdivision at St. Croix junction, listed at milepost 410.5 in a railfan summary of the BNSF timetable.

The highway crossing next door has its own history, kept in the park: the gear house of the 1923 highway lift bridge was restored in 1991.

• A working vertical-lift railroad bridge at the confluence of two rivers, run under a federal drawbridge schedule: from April 1 to October 31 it opens on signal from 8 a.m. to midnight (33 CFR 117.667).
• Two movable bridges side by side: the BNSF lift span and the US Highway 10 bridge just upstream.
• A city park with parking beside the main line, rather than a road shoulder.
• Two Steel Highway railcams watch the same crossing, so traffic can be checked remotely before the trip.
• Hastings, about 3.5 km (2.2 mi) west, has a second railroad lift bridge, on CPKC's River Subdivision, used by Amtrak's Empire Builder: two lift bridges in one short outing.