251 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
A YEAR’S WORK IN THE MINNEAPOLIS PARKS 
To what is probably the richest 
and most varied natural endowments 
of any park system in the country, 
iMinneapolis has added an efficient, 
mergetic and remarkable work in 
park building that is second to no 
city of its size, and far in advance 
of many that are larger. No little 
credit for the widespread popular in- 
terest of the people of Minneapolis 
in their parks is due to the remark- 
ably handsome, complete and inspir- 
ing reports issued each year by the 
board. With a commission enthusi- 
astically devoted to the work, and a 
superintendent of rare ability and en- 
ergy, the necessary co-operation of 
the people has been attained to an 
unusual degree by issuing and distrib- 
uting the handsomest and most com- 
plete park report of any city in the 
countr3r. 
The distribution of such a book set- 
ting forth the needs and accomplish- 
ments of the park system is not the 
least of the reasons whj^ the people 
of Minneapolis understand and are 
proud of their park system. The re- 
port for 1909 is the same handsomely 
printed and carefully compiled record 
of everything pertaining to the year’s 
park work. Every important piece of 
work is illustrated by photographs, 
maps, plans and tables that give an 
adequate understanding of what the 
board is doing, and wants to do. 
Of the many r'ifferent improve- 
ments now under way, the most im- 
portant is undoubtedly the waterway 
connections between Lake Calhoun, 
Lake of the Isles, and Cedar Lake. 
The dredging of the waterways and 
lagoons in itself is an easy, although 
sizeable, undertaking, but the build- 
ing of six appropriate bridges has 
been found to offer many difficulties 
which were not fully recognized from 
the beginning. 
The desire to build attractive and 
durable structures induced the board 
to offer three prizes of $800, $500 
and $200, respectively, for competi- 
tive designs, and about twenty-five 
different designs were received. With 
a few e.xceptions the designs submit- 
ted were not of the high-class char- 
acter which it was thought the com- 
petition would bring forth. The first 
prize of $800 was awarded to IMessrs. 
H. Lincoln Rogers and Guy Vroman, 
of New York City, and it was decided 
to adopt that design for bridge No. 1 
to be located at the inlet to Lake 
Calhoun. 
The second prize of $500 was 
awarded to Messrs. Wm. Pierce 
Cowles, C. E., and Cecil Piayless 
Chapman, architect, both of Minne- 
apolis. No third prize was awarded, 
but the design submitted by l\Ir. 
Frederick Bigelow, of Newark, N. J., 
was purchased. 
l\Iessrs. Cowles and Chapman have 
been engaged as consulting and 
supervising engineer and architect to 
prepare the necessary detail plans and 
specifications for all bridges and to 
direct their construction. Illustra- 
tions of the adopted plans are shown 
herewith. Bridge No. 3 is to be 
located at the outlet of Lake of the 
Isles into the waterway towards Lake 
Calhoun, and bridge No. 4 is to span 
the waterwaj" leading into the lagoon 
between Lake of the Isles and Cedar 
Lake. INIr. Frederick Bigelow’s de- 
sign it was thought might eventually 
be used for bridge No. 6, spanning 
the waterway west to Cedar Lake. 
The specifications for the bridge- 
design competition stipulated that the 
cost of the bridges Nos. 3, 4 and 6 
should not exceed $15,000 each, and 
that the cost of the much wider 
bridge No. 1 should be in relative pro- 
portion to the others. 
The accompanying estimates of the 
prize-winning designs were within 
those amounts, but when bids were 
received for the construction of 
bridges Nos. 3 and 4 it was found that 
they exceeded that amount by 50 to 
100 per cent, and figures based on 
similar prices for material for bridge 
No. 1 show similar results. 
The specifications called for sepa- 
rate bids on granite and Bedford 
stone. The prices given on the for- 
mer were in all cases double those of 
Bedford stone, placing the granite 
MINNEHAHA CREEK. MINNEAPOLIS PARK SYSTEM. 
