Bridges everywhere

Over at the Ragtag Daily Prompt the word of the day is BRIDGE.

A ‘skyway’ is an elevated footbridge connecting two buildings. Downtown Minneapolis is a city of skyways, and within those skyways lie another – elevtated – city.

From the Minneapolis website: “The Minneapolis Skyway System is the largest contiguous system of enclosed, second-level bridges in the world—composed of 9.5 miles of pathways connecting 80 city blocks. The Minneapolis skyway system connects corporate offices, bars, restaurants, bakeries, hotels, government services, retail, gyms, grocery stores, liquor stores, banks, doctors, dentists, masseurs, pharmacies, hair and nail salons, dry cleaners, live theaters, three pro sports facilities, a church, art exhibits, and… well, you get the idea.”

They forgot to mention a stripper bar.

If you like maps, you can see a map of the skyway system here.

So, why this is even remotely interesting is because the picture below was taken from one of the skyways. If you looked at the map, it’s the skyway that runs between 4^th and 5^th Avenue South and 6^th and 7^th Street South. The picture is showing you the historic Minneapolis Armory (which has been remodeled into a concert and event venue where a bunch of bands I’ve never heard of play) with the Viking’s stadium in the background. The tall building is just that. That building has 12 stories and even though you’re only seeing nine, I can vouch for the existence of the other three. You see all those cars and trucks parked on the street in front of the Armory? The shaky red arrow on the left is pointing to exactly where I was parked on the day my sweet Cavalier was hit. An event I wrote about yesterday. And it’s not too late to read it if you want! 🙂

If you like The Replacements, they wrote a song about the Minneapolis skyways.