MnIndy Video: St. Paul’s High Bridge closure leaves only one route across the Mississippi

Things will open up again in the morning. Number one, Downtown St. Paul has nothing (absolutely) going on past 5 p.m. on a normal weeknight, and yes you are right, they are doing it to block people who are not conventiongoers, mostly for security's sake, as there are federal government staff including the First Lady and Governors, Senators, etc. around. Number two, employees and people who need to access Downtown in the mornings and during regular rush hours have been well aware of detours, etc. for months now, and the city will not block them. Metro Transit only suspends service during this time and will be back to (mostly) normal service in the a.m., with re-routing due to convention traffic/blockades.

There is no reason for this at all. It's just another fear tactic to make things look more important than they are. There is absolutely NO reason to have the high bridge closed. People should get fired for going along with this.

did the bridges feel wiggly at all?

i think that the big story that is being missed is what happened at the Robert Street bridge. All of the concert attendees who were on foot after the show walked to the Wabasha bridge to cross the river (back to their cars and buses) – but we were told that we couldn't cross there, to go to the next bridge, the Robert Street bridge. Begrudgingly, the stream of people walked over to the next bridge. The crowd was diverse, young and older, families with kids, etc. Seconds after a friend and I made it over the bridge, a group of maybe 12-15 cops on bikes quickly rode in and formed a blockade in front of the pedestrians crossing the bridge. Confused and distressed, yet on the “safe” side, we stayed to take pictures and watch what was happening. There was no protesting, chanting, any activity that would lead one to believe that this was a crowd that needed controlling. Soon after the cops set up their bike barricade, riot police were sent in. They stood in formation on the street, then rushed up to the blockade to reinforce the other police. What had been a steady and calm flow of people on the bridge's sidewalk swelled into a very confused crowd that filled the whole bridge. Tensions rose as the police refused to explain why these people were being detained; the crowd on the bridge became restless and some people started yelling. After about 15 minutes of this standoff, the police backed off and released the pedestrians. No explanation was ever given.