Minneapolisst Paul Apt Port

Minneapolis’s upper riverfront reflects an earlier era of commercial navigation on the Mississippi. Barges once served industrial waterfront properties, including the Upper Harbor Terminal, where river transport formed part of a freight system alongside road and rail connections.

Freight operations at Upper Harbor ended in 2014, ahead of the closure of the Upper St Anthony Falls lock in 2015. That change cut the navigation route used by commercial barges to reach this stretch of river and altered the role of the former terminal land.

The waterfront is now the subject of redevelopment, with plans for housing, employment and public river access. Its port identity is therefore chiefly historical: the former freight landscape is being adapted to new urban uses, while active commercial navigation continues farther downstream.