The latest addition to Washington County’s collection of bridges arrived during the middle of the night on Friday after a 135-mile trip along back roads, complete with a police escort.

A 250-foot-long, six-span bridge purchased for $1 from Brown County was delivered to a Washington County-owned gravel pit in May Township, just north of the Washington County Department of Public Works’ north shop, around 3:30 a.m.

The move went great, according to Ryan Hoefs, the Washington County engineer who oversaw the move.

“It was quite the sight to see,” he said. “The caravan left Lakeville at midnight and made it into Washington County around 2 a.m., and we arrived at the final destination around 3:30 a.m., where the contractor put the two spans on support structures.”

Bridge 2110, built in 1918, spanned the Minnesota River on the border of Brown and Renville counties southeast of Franklin, Minnesota. (Courtesy of Brown County Highway Department)

The bridge, which was built in 1918, has two main spans that are 80-foot riveted steel Warren pony trusses. Officially known as Bridge 2110, it most recently was located on a gravel road known as Brown County Road 8 and Renville County Road 3. It spanned the Minnesota River on the Brown County-Renville County border, about 5 miles southeast of Franklin, Minn.

The bridge was determined eligible for the National Register of Historic Places as part of a statewide inventory of Minnesota’s historic bridges, according to Brown County officials.

“It is Minnesota’s most notable example of a pre-1925, standard-plan, Warren pony truss bridge designed by the Minnesota Highway Department,” Brown County officials wrote in a information package describing the bridge to potential buyers. “The 80-foot trusses are Minnesota’s longest surviving examples of this particular truss type.”

When Brown County officials decided to replace the bridge with a wider structure, they put out a call for a new owner willing to relocate the bridge for use on a local road, park, trail or similar setting.

Washington County spent about $90,000 to have the bridge moved to the county. It will be rehabilitated and reused as a pedestrian and bike bridge in a yet-to-be-determined county park, Hoefs said.

A 1918 bridge recently acquired by Washington County moves through Lake Elmo on County Road 14. (Courtesy of Washington County)

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Washington County has a history of rehabilitating and reusing historic bridges, Hoefs said, referring to the Gateway Trail Iron Bridge, a wrought-iron Parker truss that carries Gateway Trail users over Manning Avenue (Washington County Road 15) in Stillwater Township. That bridge, originally constructed in 1873 in Sauk Centre, was relocated to Koochiching County in 1937, where it carried Minnesota 65 over the Little Fork River. The bridge was erected at its current location in 2011.

“We’ve done it once before, and it worked great,” Hoefs said. “It’s a great deal — and a great way to preserve history.”

As for Hoefs, he thinks his bridge-moving career is over.

“This will be the first and only time I move a bridge,” he said.