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somethingisaskew t1_ja24s9h wrote

Reply to comment by Eroe777 in TIL that the 1980 miles of Alaska’s Yukon River is only crossed by 4 bridges. By comparison, the slightly longer Mississippi River is has more than 132 bridges. by triviafrenzy

Yeah 132 feels way low.

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Eroe777 t1_ja28im9 wrote

Not necessarily.

The Mississippi is very long, but there aren't very many built up areas along it's length. There are only four big metropolitan areas- Minneapolis/Saint Paul, Saint Louis, Memphis, and New Orleans- and the latter three combined don't have more than what I counted in Minneapolis alone. I'm not bored enough to count the whole length, but it wouldn't surprise me if half of those 132 bridges have at least one end in Minnesota. (I did count 32 just in the Twin Cities metropolitan area)

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somethingisaskew t1_ja5ahyt wrote

I wonder if they got it by counting on Google maps or something? I know there are a ton around St. Louis including a foot traffic only bridge. Maybe whatever they looked at didn't show them all? Now I want to see all of the data but I don't want to do the work.

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Eroe777 t1_ja5bzzy wrote

I counted on google maps. I saw a half dozen or so at St. Louis, fewer at Memphis and about the same at New Orleans. And I counted multiple span (separate bridges for each direction) freeway bridges as a single bridge.

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somethingisaskew t1_ja5finr wrote

Maybe so. I guess crossing it farther south becomes quite daunting. I lived in a suburb of St Paul for awhile so I know what the river looks like there. It makes sense that more crossings would be near the headwaters.

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Eroe777 t1_ja5lbig wrote

I live in the twin cities. The river here is a couple hundred yards across, so bridges are easy. I’ve crossed the river in Memphis and I swear it’s close to a half mile wide.

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somethingisaskew t1_ja5q1n1 wrote

Yeah I lived in the twin cities and also in St Louis. But I have visited New Orleans and man is it a whole different river down at the delta.

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Dhawk0923 t1_jab4v1x wrote

St. Louis has 7 if you include Chain of Rocks canal bridge above the city front. Chester Il. Cape Girardeau mo. Thebes RR bridge at Scott City Mo. 2 near cairo Il. Booths Point below caruthersville mo. 2 at Memphis, TN Helena, Ar Greenville, Ms Vicksburg, Ms St. Francisville LA (Audobon bridge? I cant remember the name) 2 at Baton Rouge LA Sunshine, Gramercy, Luling, Huey P Long, and G.N.O Bridges are all down in the 200ish mile stretch of river from Baton Rouge to the gulf.

Thats 26 by my count in the 1100ish miles from St. Louis to the gulf. I MIGHT have missed one or two in there somewhere that I'm just forgetting, but there must. E just a TON of bridges north of St. Louis. Which makes sense.

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