Crews on Saturday began assembling one of the major attractions leading up to the Super Bowl: a 200-foot bridge spanning 9th Street along Nicollet Mall.
The bridge is usually a feature at the American Birkebeiner, the largest cross-country ski race in the country, held in Hayward, Wis. The Super Bowl Host Committee worked with the race's foundation to bring the bridge downtown as a way to incorporate winter sports and recreation, according to Ben Popp, the Birkebeiner foundation's executive director.
"We really want to showcase what happens in Minnesota in the winter," Popp said as workers assembled the bridge in single-digit cold. "It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a small nonprofit in Wisconsin."
The bridge will stretch from 8th to 10th streets along Nicollet Mall, more than 14 feet tall and 24 feet wide above the 9th Street intersection. The structure weighs about 50,000 pounds.
Once the bridge is built, trucks will dump a foot of snow on it. The Loppet Foundation, a Minneapolis nonprofit that promotes outdoor activities for underserved youth, will coordinate a slew of activities across the bridge.
They will include free opportunities to try skiing, fat-tire biking and skijoring, a sport in which a person on skis is pulled by dogs. A machine will groom the snow each night.
"Anything that you can do in the winter in Minnesota on snow, we're gonna try and do it over the bridge," Popp said.
The bridge will be up by Sunday night, he said.
![Construction workers positioned and assembled the American Birkebeiner International Bridge, which has temporarily moved from Hayward, Wis. to downtown Minneapolis. Over 13,000 skiers cross the bridge during the American Birkebeiner, North America’s largest cross-country ski race held each February. The bridge was moved to Minneapolis where it will stay through the Super Bowl. Events planned on the bridge include skiing, tubing, skijoring and Fat Tire biking. ] Shari L. Gross • sha](https://arc.stimg.co/startribunemedia/WFW4FOZKZVEZ6LUJWFBIBXKE64.jpg?&w=1080)
