The corridor has served as an important transportation link in the Twin Cities since territorial days when it connected downtown Saint Paul and Fort Snelling.

[4] On September 6th, 2024 Ramsey County announced that planning efforts for the modern streetcar project were cancelled.

Modern day Cliff Street and Stewart Avenue follow around the route of Old Fort Road.

[8] The neighborhood grew as waves of settlers and immigrant came to the area to farm or work for local industrial sites.

A sizable amount of industry is located between the Mississippi River and south of West Seventh Street.

[8] Workers built their houses close to local industry and different ethnic enclaves developed with the different waves of immigrants.

The lack of an extension to Fort Snelling became undesirable to soldiers who wanted an easy connection to the city and civilians who worked on the military reservation.

Construction began in 1964, and was planned for completion in the 1970s as a typical six-lane freeway, but the National Environmental Policy Act was passed on January 1, 1970.

The group convinced the city to drop its support, and in August it filed a lawsuit which successfully halted construction pending an environmental impact statement (EIS).

The plan included a four-lane boulevard upgrade of Pleasant Avenue (the street chosen for the I-35E alignment), with another route such as Shepard Road or the nearby Lafayette Freeway forming part of I-35E.

[14][page needed] There are several different variations of the corridor but all of them have the Mall of America as one terminus and the Airport and Downtown Saint Paul as destinations.

There were four possible routes along this section of the corridor; West Seventh Street, Interstate 35E, Shepard Road and along Canadian Pacific Railway tracks.

The current Fort Road Bridge was built in 1960 by the Minnesota Department of Transportation and was designed by Sverdrup & Parcel Engineering Company.

Governor Jesse Ventura decided to use his $175 million portion of the surplus to lower auto license fees.

The line would run along West Seventh street through the East Side of Saint Paul to the Maplewood Mall by 2004 with service increasing to every 7.5 minutes.

[21] They included widening West Seventh, from I-35E to Smith Avenue, by 4 feet in order to create bus-only lanes.

[24] West Seventh residents and businesses were concerned about loss of parking and sidewalk space because of the need to expand the street by 4 feet.

[29] Metro Transit Route 54 was extended past downtown Saint Paul to Maplewood Mall in 2018 as part of a federal grant.

Limited stop bus operations on West Seventh Ave would have allowed BRT-style improvements to be more easily integrated.

[36][37][38] The title of Metro B Line was eventually given to the Lake Street-Marshall Avenue-Selby Avenue Corridor from Uptown, Minneapolis to downtown Saint Paul.

On January 23, 2013, the Saint Paul City Council voted in favor of requesting the Ramsey County Regional Rail Authority to conduct a new transit study of the Riverview Corridor.

The study included extensive public involvement and outreach effort to assure community input informs the project's vision and the results of the analysis.

[40] The study determined that light rail as seen on the Green and Blue Lines in the region would not be suitable for the corridor but a streetcar with smaller vehicles and stations could be further explored.

[43] On September 6, 2024, Ramsey County announced that they would end work and cancel any future meetings on the Riverview Corridor project based on community feedback.

MAC did not have veto authority over the project but was concerned about reducing the number of lanes on a new Fort Road Bridge and how it would delay airport travelers.

Some local business owners opposed the project due to construction disruptions and loss of street parking.