Veterans Bridge is a steel girder bridge

Girder bridge

A girder bridge, in general, is a bridge built of girders placed on bridge abutments and foundation piers. In turn, a bridge deck is built on top of the girders in order to carry traffic. There are several different subtypes of girder bridges:...

 that spans the Mississippi River

Mississippi River

The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...

 in St. Cloud, Minnesota

St. Cloud, Minnesota

St. Cloud is a city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and the largest population center in the state's central region. The population was 65,842 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Stearns County...

. It was built in 1971 and was designed by Howard, Needles, Tammen & Bergendoff

HNTB

HNTB Corporation is an architecture and engineering consulting firm headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri that has designed many bridges, roadways, airports and professional sports stadiums across the United States and around the world.The firm started in 1914 as Harrington, Howard & Ash...

.

There have been three previous bridges at this location. The first was built in 1867 by the St. Cloud Bridge Company and was a wooden toll bridge. The city bought the bridge in 1887 and rebuilt it with iron and wood. In 1894, the wooden bridge was replaced with a deck truss bridge, which survived until the new bridge was built in 1971.