7 Bridges Road

The Lake Superior port town of Duluth is known for both its beauty and its history and few places exemplify that more then 7 bridges road. 7 Bridges Road runs from Skyline Drive, just past Hawk Ridge, four miles to Occidental Boulevard.

7 Bridges Road was originally called Snively's Road, named for Samuel Snively who owned a large farm on the bluff over looking Lake Superior. Snively loved the country side around his farm and decided that it would be a good location for a park drive. So he began to work on getting the necessary land and money and in 1900 Snively's Road opened to the public.

Snively designed the road with aesthetics in mind. The road runs through stands of birch and poplar winding gently down the hill towards the lake below. The lower portions of the road intertwine with Amity Creek criss crossing back and forth over the bubbling waters.

With in ten years of its opening most of the bridges on Snively's Road had fallen into ruin, due to neglect, making the road impassable. So in 1910 control of the road was transferred to Duluth's Park Commission. The Park Commission began a plan to renovate the road, replacing the ruined wooden bridges with sturdier arched bridges made of concrete and steel. To keep the aesthetic appeal of the road the bridges were faced with stone from the area with the coping and tops done in pink opal granite. The renovations were completed in 1912 and the road reopened with a new name Amity Parkway.

In the 1930's Snively again went to work on Amity Parkway, this time as mayor of Duluth. With his farm no longer standing, it was destroyed by a forest fire back in 1918, Snively finished his road by extending it to connect up to Skyline Drive near Hawk Ridge. Two of the nine bridges were no longer used, due to this change in the road, and fell into disrepair leaving only 7 bridges, which is how the road got its name.

Today 7 Bridges Road is considered something of a landmark in Duluth. Locals as well as tourists travel down it by car, bike, horse, or foot enjoying the same beauty that Samuel Snively witnessed back in the late 1800's.