As its southern boundary over almost its entire length is the Mississippi River,[3] there is cross traffic at only a handful of intersections, and few signal lights.

Much of the road is atop or alongside wooded riverside bluffs, and it adjoins several parks and nature areas.

The island was the site of a prison camp for Indians captured in the Dakota War of 1862 and now part of Fort Snelling State Park.

As the road reaches downtown it rejoins the river bank and is located atop the levee where steamboats once stopped and where the city began.

The road southeast between the Mississippi and Indian Mounds Park, a burial ground for Native Americans in Pre-contact times.

[10] When constructed in the 1960s, the road was the only four-lane, restricted-access connection between the I-494 beltline and downtown Saint Paul, as I-35E had not yet been completed.

The road remains an important route for trucks to bypass weight restrictions on Interstate 35E and slower traffic and signal lights on Highway 5.

Webb was acquired by other companies, most famously by the British Printing & Communications Corp. (BPCC) of Robert Maxwell.