Jay Cooke State Park is one of Minnesota’s most scenic places, with hiking opportunities surrounding the rushing St. Louis river. It’s also home to the iconic swinging bridge, which offers you sweeping views of the river below, while you’re swaying from the wind (or the children jumping at the bridge’s end). While it’s not necessarily nerve-wracking to walk across the bridge, standing in the middle, slightly swaying, staring down at the raging river that has destructive force enough to have destroyed the bridge twice already, is definitely mesmerizing and a bit scary.

The first swinging bridge was built in 1924 with logs and rope by the Forest Service.
Flickr/Steve Moses
Then, in 1934, the CCC built a bridge with the stone pillars, like the current model.
Wikimedia/Ravedave
It was destroyed in 1950 in a flood recorded at 42,000 cubic feet per second.
Flickr/Ann

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It was rebuilt in 1953, to be destroyed nearly 60 years later in the 2012 flood, recored at 55,000 cubic feet per second.
Flickr/Steve Moses
The bridge is alive again as of 2013, and while it's definitely less scary than before, it can still provoke anxiety to stand, swinging above the rushing waters of the St. Louis.
Flickr/Dino Trnjanin
Even though the park still has some closures due to remaining flood damage, people love visiting to hike the trails surrounding the St. Louis river, and walk over the iconic Swinging Bridge, with its new cedar log entry.
Flickr/Steve Moses

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