Pier removal

Nothing left but rubble

All but gone

Lowry Bridge RIP

1905 - 2009

Died at the ripe age of 104.

Cause of death: explosives

And then they set off the explosives

First they went midieval on that bridge with a torch

An invitation to destruction

The final sunset

A lovely orange hue for the last sunset over the Lowry Bridge

Captain Parkos ventures out on the last night of the LB

Point of no return

I'd say they've passed it.

Last night's pleasing atmospherics

showcased the grandeur of the Lowry Bridge.

A gathering storm

A foreboding sky meets a doomed bridge on the final night of May.

Three weeks from now, this bridge will be a memory.

Like homeless folk and various inebriates,

smallmouth bass often loiter in the vicinity of the LB. Hesler detained one of these finny vagrants while casting and drifting below the LB's west end.

Vintage 1905 bridge meets vintage 1958 Shell Craft

From the LDLB archives: January 17, 2009

The LB never looked better

than it did this Memorial Day weekend.

Three ways to frame the downtown skyline using the Lowry Bridge

Deconstruction

Workers have now removed most of the steel decking, utility stuff and concrete from the bridge.

It makes me think of what real estate people always say about old houses: she's got good bones!

From the LDLB archives: November 1, 2008

The image was captured while I was floating under the east end of the bridge on a warm fall day.

From the LDLB Archives: Three views from January 2009

From upriver, downriver, and atop

The end is near

This stately old bridge, built in 1905 and rehabbed extensively twice, crosses the Mississippi River at Lowry Avenue, linking north Minneapolis to northeast Minneapolis.

Less than one month from now the LB will be exploded into the river. Already, construction workers have removed the steel mesh deck -- one of the LB's more distinctive aspects--and removed tons of concrete and utility stuff.

This photoblog is a eulogy in progress.