If you walked to the Mill City Farmers Market this month, you probably did what most of us have been doing for the past year: browsed the stalls, grabbed a coffee, and turned back toward downtown without giving the Stone Arch Bridge a second thought. The bridge sits right there, at the edge of the market, fully open and fully walkable. Most people still treat it like it isn't.
That habit made sense for a long time. For fifteen months, the bridge genuinely wasn't crossable. What's less obvious is that the habit outlasted the construction by more than a year, and the thing it's costing residents is a walk that connects two neighborhoods' fall calendars into one Saturday instead of two separate trips.
What actually closed, and for how long
Crews began work on the Stone Arch Bridge in April 2024, repairing stone and replacing mortar across the entire span. During construction, the bridge was never fully closed in the sense of a locked gate. Instead, MnDOT closed half the structure at a time, which meant pedestrians and cyclists could walk out to the midpoint and had to turn around. You could see downtown from the middle of the river. You couldn't get there.
For anyone who needed to actually cross, the state's official workaround was the Third Avenue Bridge a short walk south, which had itself just reopened in October 2023 after more than three years of its own construction. So for over a year, the direct, obvious connection between the Mill District and the Northeast side of the river ran through a detour most people didn't bother with. They drove instead.
The bridge reopened in the summer of 2025, months ahead of the spring 2026 completion date the project had originally been given. Minnesota's governor said at the reopening that the $38.5 million project finished with zero injuries and stayed on budget. Because it wrapped early, the public got roughly three extra months of bridge access that year beyond what had been planned.
That was over a year ago now. This is the second fall since the bridge reopened, not the first. The habit of routing around it, or not crossing it at all, is the part that hasn't caught up with the infrastructure.
The two ends of the bridge, and what's actually on each one
Here's the detail that turns "the bridge is open" from trivia into something worth acting on this September: the two ends of the Stone Arch Bridge aren't just scenery. They're each anchored by a real, dated fall event, on opposite sides of the river, and the bridge is the only way to walk between them.
On the downtown side, the Mill City Farmers Market runs its Saturday season in the historic Mill District, right next to the bridge and the river. It's the kind of stop most Mill District residents already have on their weekend rotation.
On the other side, Father Hennepin Bluff Park in St. Anthony Main sits at the northeast landing of the bridge, the same spot where officials held the ribbon-cutting ceremony and then walked the crowd across into downtown. That park is hosting the Owámni Falling Water Festival on Saturday, October 10, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., a celebration of Indigenous culture, music, food, and art tied to the history of the falls themselves.
Put those two facts next to each other and you get a walk that didn't exist as a real option for over a year: market on one bank, festival on the other, bridge in between.
| Date | Event | Location | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Saturdays through fall | Mill City Farmers Market | Historic Mill District, at the foot of the bridge | Weekly, adjacent to the Stone Arch Bridge and river |
| Sept. 19 | SurlyFest | Surly's brewery | Not part of the bridge walk; a separate trip if Oktoberfest-style brews and live music are your thing |
| Oct. 10, 11 a.m.–4 p.m. | Owámni Falling Water Festival | Father Hennepin Bluff Park, St. Anthony Main | At the northeast landing of the Stone Arch Bridge |
SurlyFest doesn't fit the walking loop geographically, but it's real, it's dated, and it's worth having on the calendar regardless.
Why the habit hasn't caught up
The most useful thing to understand about the Mill District right now isn't that the bridge is open. It's that most residents are still making decisions based on a map that expired over a year ago.
During the closure, if you wanted to get from a downtown Saturday morning to something happening in Northeast or St. Anthony Main, the official routing sent you south to the Third Avenue Bridge instead. That's not a long detour on paper, but it breaks the direct, obvious line between the market and the park, and once people build a driving habit around a closure, they tend to keep it long after the closure ends. The bridge itself was closed for about fifteen months. The mental habit of avoiding it has now run longer than the construction did.
The market's regular Saturday run and the Falling Water Festival's specific October date are both on the calendar again this year, with a bridge that's been open long enough to stop being news and start being infrastructure. The walk between them still isn't the default most residents reach for.
What's new to fold into the walk
A few things have changed downtown since the bridge came back that are worth knowing if you're building a Saturday around this loop.
Trópico opened in the Kickernick building downtown, serving cocktails and Colombian food, including ceviche that's very much in season right now. Paper Boy Deli, from chef Kamal Mohamed and pastry chef Yon Hailu, opened its skyway sandwich shop downtown as well, built around a Tuscan flatbread that holds up well as a walk-and-eat option before or after a market morning.
One thing that hasn't opened yet, despite a fair amount of anticipation: the food hall planned for the old Rock Bottom Brewery space downtown, a 30,000-square-foot project from the team behind the Market at Malcolm Yards, is still in the design stage. If you've been waiting for that one, it's not there yet.
The loop, mapped
If you want to actually use the reopened bridge this fall instead of just walking past it, here's the simple version:
- Start at the Mill City Farmers Market on a Saturday morning, on the downtown side of the river.
- Walk the Stone Arch Bridge across to St. Anthony Main. At 2,100 feet, it's flat, paved, and takes most people well under fifteen minutes at an easy pace.
- On October 10 specifically, that walk lands you directly at Father Hennepin Bluff Park for the Falling Water Festival.
- Loop back the same way, or continue into downtown for a stop at Trópico or Paper Boy Deli on the way home.
None of this required a car. For over a year, it would have required one, or at least a longer walk than most people were willing to make on a Saturday morning. That's the part of the story that's easy to miss if you already live here and stopped paying attention to the bridge once the construction fencing came down.
The Stone Arch Bridge has been fully open for more than a year now. This fall just happens to be the one where both ends of it have something specific enough, and dated enough, to make the walk worth taking on purpose.
If you're weighing a move within the Mill District or the broader downtown riverfront corridor and want a read on how a specific building or block actually lives day to day, David K Wells III Real Estate knows this stretch of the river well enough to tell you the difference. Contact David & Wren to discuss your next move.
