On February 24, 1985, twenty-four thousand people gathered on the banks of the Mississippi River in Saint Paul, Minnesota to witness the demolition of a 97-year-old bridge that connected their communities for generations. When it came down in a well-orchestrated collapse of steel, there was scattered applause and then silence. No one present had ever seen this valley without the bridge.

High Bridge documents the passing of the High Bridge, contrasting images of demolition with accounts of its construction. The images are a sequence of ten wood engravings by Gaylord Schanilec. Printed with five to seven colors, these compositions blend together in a cinemagraphic-like style, affording views of the bridge as if on a walk. Accompanying the engravings are nine stort stories derived from Saint Paul newspapers accounts tracing the bridge’s construction in the late 1800’s. Revised and edited by Clayton Schanilec, these stories maintain the “tip-your-hat-to-the-lady” journalistic style of the time.

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