Author: <span>Griff Wigley</span>

 
When Robbie and I visited New Ulm a couple weeks ago, we kept trying to put our finger on what it was about their downtown’s main drag (Minnesota St) that made it seem not as attractive as Northfield’s downtown main drag, Division St.

  
We both noticed that New Ulm’s downtown street was much wider, easily accommodating diagonal parking on both sides, inhibiting the feel of an ‘outdoor room.’ But then it dawned on me that there was another factor: the lack of a ‘terminated view’ that Bridge Square provides. I learned about both of these design elements from former Northfielder Chris Robbins who wrote a column about both for the Northfield News back in 1999.

I contacted Chris, now living in Middlebury Vermont with hubby Peter Hamlin, wondering if she had a copy of her column. She did and she replied:

Here in Vermont we are used to the terminated view. For example, here is Middlebury’s Main Street. The bridge you can see here is the only bridge within miles except for an old covered bridge. So it takes all the semis as well as other traffic, but it still functions as a popular pedestrian street, partly because it’s so narrow and easy to cross.

Discussions about a bypass or a second bridge have been going on since the 50s, but nothing came of them. So the town decided to build a second bridge themselves, without state or federal $. It is under construction now, funded by a sales tax and a rooms & meals tax that we voted for. It’s not far from the current bridge, but it will provide a short-cut to Rt. 7 (our equivalent of Hwy 3). Considering that the police and fire depts. are on one side of the river and the college and hospital are on the other, it does seem about time for a second bridge!

And although Middlebury has a pretty Main St. with a terminated view, we don’t have anything as nice as Bridge Square.

Here’s Chris’ 1999 column: