Running parallel to Lake Street, the 5-mile-long Midtown Greenway connects the South Minneapolis neighborhoods around the Chain of Lakes to the Mississippi River, near the border with St. Paul.

“That’s the type of bike trail I take my wife or grandkids on,” said veteran cyclist Bill Dooley. “It’s very well maintained in the winter.”

Cyclists have long dreamed of extending the family-friendly trail connection across the river into St. Paul, through the Capital City’s downtown area and over to the Gateway State Trail, which stretches northeast into Stillwater. The natural barrier dashing those plans is the Mississippi. There’s a possibility — not a guarantee, but more than a hope — that could someday change.

On Thursday, Dooley learned that the Midtown Greenway Coalition had completed $45,000 in fundraising for a study of an old Canadian Pacific Railway bridge over the river. Executive director Soren Jensen indicated he planned to hire the engineering firm of Kimley-Horn to complete the study, with results likely by late fall.

The goal is to determine what it would take to rehab the weathered “Short Line” bridge — which still carries railroad traffic a few times a week — to get it fit to carry cyclists.

“We’ll use the first chunk of the funds for the engineering study of the bridge, which will launch in a few weeks,” said Jensen, in an email to supporters. “Once the study is completed, we’ll hold a community meeting in St. Paul to share the results, likely later in the fall.”

In a brief interview Thursday, Jensen said a separate study of potential river crossings a decade ago concluded that the 1880 railroad bridge was unfit for cyclists in its existing condition, but that review did not determine how much it would cost to get it rehabbed.

”The linchpin is the bridge,” Jensen said.

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“I think the key is going to be what the (bridge) inspection finds,” Dooley said.

And if the dream of a truly Twin Cities Midtown Greenway someday becomes reality?

“That way you could go from Hopkins to Stillwater,” Dooley said. “That could be a really nice run.”

To raise the $45,000, the Midtown Greenway Coalition recruited 36 partners — from Nice Ride and the Union Park District Council to USA Track and Field Minnesota — for the “Extend the Greenway: Over the River and Through St. Paul” campaign on YouCaring.com. As of Thursday evening, the campaign had raised $45,744 of its $45,000 goal from 342 donors, with 34 days to spare.