The Sorlie Memorial Bridge is East Grand Forks's oldest and most distinctive river crossing. Built in 1929 by the Minneapolis Bridge Company, it connects the two downtowns at DeMers Avenue and carries both vehicle and pedestrian traffic. The bridge is named for Arthur Sorlie, a North Dakota governor who died in office in 1928, and its Art Deco towers are the most architecturally notable structures in the immediate area.
Walking or cycling across the Sorlie Bridge gives the clearest sense of the twin-city dynamic — a few seconds over the river and you are in a different state, with a different downtown and a different bar-closing time. The bridge survived the 1997 flood (unlike much of the city around it), and standing on it during high water still conveys the scale of what the river can do.