Rock Island Swing Bridge Lights Shine as Inver Grove Heights Develops Request Guidelines
September 24, 2026
September 24, 2026
What color would you want a 130-year-old railroad bridge to turn on your birthday? The city is still developing guidelines for color requests.
That's the strange, small tension sitting underneath the biggest visual change to hit the city this year. The Rock Island Swing Bridge, the old double-decker structure that once carried trains over the Mississippi River, has been lit up in more than 30,000 individually programmable LED lights since earlier this year. It runs a choreographed color show every night from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m., pushed back an hour during Memorial Day through Labor Day to account for later sunsets. If you've driven Concord Boulevard after dark this summer, you've seen it. The city is still developing a policy for how custom requests will be handled.
Beyond the bridge, the city's other projects and seasonal activities this year offer a broader look at the changes underway.
Back on February 11, 2026, the city's Parks and Recreation Advisory Commission approved a five-point work plan for the year, presented by the Parks and Recreation Director. It wasn't a flashy announcement. It was the kind of routine agenda item that shows up in a commission packet and nowhere else. But the five priorities on that list quietly explain almost every visible change a resident has noticed since:
Four of those five items have moved forward with the low-key efficiency you'd expect from a city that's used to doing this. The fifth, the bridge lighting policy, remains in development while the lights themselves have been running for months.
The bridge itself has earned the attention. Built in 1894 for the South St. Paul Beltline Railroad, it carried rail traffic on top and road traffic below, one of only two double-decker swing bridges Minnesota ever had. Local legend holds that gangster John Dillinger crossed it in a stolen car after a shootout with Dakota County authorities in the mid-1930s. The bridge closed to trains in 1980 and to cars in 1999, then sat abandoned and half-collapsed until the city converted it into a public pier in 2011, stretching close to 670 feet over the river.
That pier sat mostly dark for over a decade. This year, a roughly $450,000 state appropriation paid for the lighting overhaul, and the idea reportedly started with a city council member who wanted a way to draw more attention to the community. The Parks and Recreation Director told the Star Tribune the city now has "pretty much every color known to humanity" it can put on the bridge, and the nightly show has already become something residents build evening walks around.
What hasn't been settled is who gets to ask for what. City staff are fielding requests for custom color combinations, birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays, and they're trying to draft guidelines before those requests turn into disputes. Federal holidays are an easy yes. So are "Hallmark holidays" like Valentine's Day, based on commission discussion. Long-running community events like IGH Days appear to be a yes as well. The harder question is what happens if a Minnesota team wins a championship on the same night as a federal holiday. The Parks and Recreation Director has floated purple and gold for a Vikings win, but for now, unresolved scheduling conflicts may fall to the city administrator to sort out case by case.
For a resident, the practical takeaway is simple: the bridge is worth a walk after sunset this fall, and the city is still developing guidelines for personal color requests.
Several examples show how that work has taken shape.
The Brightside Playzone, a three-level indoor play area inside the Veterans Memorial Community Center, went from a resident survey in spring 2025 to construction that January through March of 2026 to a public opening on June 23, 2026. The old vending machines and a long-standing Snoopy statue were relocated during construction, then the Snoopy statue was worked back into the final design as a permanent fixture. No extended policy debate, no unresolved questions about who gets to use it. It opened, and it's been open daily since.
The city also has a seasonal project at South Valley Park: since June 1, working goats have been rotating through six fenced enclosures, clearing buckthorn and round leaf bittersweet as part of ongoing natural resource management. They'll stay through October 31. It's a low-cost, low-drama solution to an invasive species problem.
IGH Days, the city's signature late-summer celebration, ran September 9 through 13 this year, its Business Expo and 31st Annual Classic Car Show filling Cahill Avenue on Saturday. If you missed it, you missed it. The festival returned on its annual schedule this year.
Commercial activity is another part of the local picture this fall. A new Culver's has been under construction on Blaine Avenue at Upper 55th Street since summer, expected to open before the year is out. It's a small addition, but it's one more sign of steady commercial infill in a city that's been quietly filling out its restaurant corridor for a few years now.
If you haven't made it to Inver Grove Brewing Co. on Buchanan Trail yet, it's worth the stop. The brewpub runs roughly 20 taps between its own house beers and guest pours from its sister location, Lakeville Brewing Co, alongside a food menu built around wood-fired pizza and a full bar. It's a family-friendly spot for a Friday night.
And if you've still got Sunday mornings free before the weather turns, the St. Paul Farmers' Market keeps running at the Veterans Memorial Community Center parking lot on Barbara Avenue through October 25, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. It's one of the last low-key seasonal routines left on the 2026 calendar.
Four of the five priorities have moved forward, while the bridge policy remains in development. Custom color requests raise questions about how the city will handle holidays and scheduling conflicts.
For now, residents can see the lights in operation, along with the Brightside Playzone and the seasonal goat program.
If you're already living here, none of this changes your address. But it's worth knowing your city the way the people who work in it do, and it means following how city projects and programs take shape. Walk the bridge this fall while the show is still new. Catch the last few farmers market Sundays. And if you ever do get an answer on what colors you're allowed to request, we'd genuinely like to know.
We stay close to these kinds of details because they're part of what makes a neighborhood worth knowing, not just worth listing. If you're thinking about what your own home is worth, the Cooking Real Estate Team is glad to help. Get Your Free Home Valuation whenever you're ready to talk.
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