page_title: Mill Avenue bridges
section_title: Tempe Town Lake Era
hierarchical_section_title: Mill Avenue bridges / Tempe Town Lake Era
caption_attribution_description: English: Photo of the railroad bridge and METRO Light Rail bridge over Tempe Town Lake looking north on the south shore in Tempe Arizona
context_page_description: The Mill Avenue Bridges consist of two bridges that cross the Salt River in Tempe, Arizona at the north end of the shopping district on Mill Avenue. The first bridge opened in August 1931 and the second bridge opened in 1994.
context_section_description: In 1999 the dry river bed was transformed into a dammed artificial lake.  Tempe Town Lake was a key success to the revitalization of Downtown Tempe.  Formerly just a crossing over the (usually) dry river, these bridges became a centerpiece of the new lake.  This prompted a lot of development along the lake.  Today, mid-rise offices rise above the southeast portion of the bridges.
  Every Fourth of July the CBS 5 July 4 Tempe Town Lake Festival is held at the lake.  The fireworks for the celebration are launched from the bridges.
  The Mill Avenue Bridges complex also includes two rail bridges slightly downstream from the motor-traffic bridges:  a railroad bridge of many decades' standing, and parallel to it a new bridge to accommodate the Phoenix Light Rail system, which opened in late 2008.
  On September 21, 2018, the Mill Avenue Bridges were designated as part of Historic U.S. Route 80 by the Arizona Department of Transportation.
  On July 29, 2020, the 1915 rail bridge adjacent to the Mill Avenue Bridges partially collapsed due to the derailment of a Union Pacific train and a subsequent fire that spread across the wooden components of the bridge structure, also causing damage in adjacent areas of Tempe Beach Park.
caption: Rail bridges located just west of the Mill Avenue Bridges crossing Town Lake
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