The Fort Frances – International Falls International Bridge is a privately owned international

International Bridge

The following bridges are known as the International Bridge:*International Railway Bridge, a railroad bridge at Buffalo, New York*Baudette-Rainy River International Bridge, connecting Rainy River, Ontario and Baudette, Minnesota...

 toll bridge

Toll bridge

A toll bridge is a bridge over which traffic may pass upon payment of a toll, or fee.- History :The practice of collecting tolls on bridges probably harks back to the days of ferry crossings where people paid a fee to be ferried across stretches of water. As boats became impractical to carry large...

 connecting the towns of Fort Frances, Ontario

Ontario

Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

 and International Falls

International Falls, Minnesota

International Falls is a city in and the county seat of Koochiching County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 6,424 at the 2010 census....

, Minnesota

Minnesota

Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...

 across the Rainy River

Rainy River (Minnesota-Ontario)

The Rainy River is a river, approximately long, which forms part of the U.S.-Canada border separating northern Minnesota and Northwestern Ontario....

.

The road and rail bridge is jointly owned by Boise Inc.

Boise Cascade

Boise Cascade Holdings, LLC, which uses the trade name Boise, is an American pulp and paper company, ranked as the thirteenth largest forest products company in the world....

 and Abitibi Consolidated, which operate paper mills on the U.S. and Canadian sides of the river, respectively.

The bridge carries both road and rail traffic, without grade separation. The rails run along the west side of the bridge, which also carries a pipeline between the paper mills. The west side of the bridge carries two lanes of automobile traffic, one in each direction. Trucks and buses are directed to drive on the rail portion of the bridge, which is capable of handling heavier loads.

A dam constructed in 1905 lies immediately west of the bridge. The reservoir to the east of the dam conceals the rapids for which International Falls was named.

The bridge is the northern terminus of U.S. Route 71

U.S. Route 71

U.S. Route 71 is a north–south United States highway. This original 1926 route has remained largely unchanged by encroaching Interstate highways. Currently, the highway's northern terminus is in International Falls, Minnesota at the Canadian border, at the southern end of the Fort...

 and U.S. Route 53

U.S. Route 53

U.S. Route 53 is a north–south U.S. highway that runs for 403 miles from La Crosse, Wisconsin to northern Minnesota. It is the primary north–south route in northwestern Wisconsin, serving as a vital link between I-94 at Eau Claire, Wisconsin and the city of Duluth, Minnesota...

. It connects with Highway 11

Highway 11 (Ontario)

King's Highway 11 is a provincially maintained highway in the Canadian province of Ontario. At , it is the second longest highway in the province after Highway 17. Highway 11 begins at Highway 400 in Barrie, and arches through northern Ontario, around Lake Superior, to the Ontario–Minnesota border...

 and Highway 71

Highway 71 (Ontario)

King's Highway 71, commonly referred to as Highway 71, is a provincially maintained highway in the Canadian province of Ontario. The route travels concurrently with Highway 11 for from the Fort Frances-International Falls International Bridge in Fort Frances, where it continues south as U.S....

, part of the Trans-Canada Highway

Trans-Canada Highway

The Trans-Canada Highway is a federal-provincial highway system that joins the ten provinces of Canada. It is, along with the Trans-Siberian Highway and Australia's Highway 1, one of the world's longest national highways, with the main route spanning 8,030 km...

, on the Ontario side.