Samuel F. Snively

Snively was born on a farm near Greencastle, Pennsylvania in the Cumberland Valley in 1859. He attended Dickinson College from 1878 to 1882, graduating with a degree in Bachelor of Arts, and also obtained a degree in Master of Arts in 1885 from the University of Philadelphia. During the 1882–83 school year, he taught in an academy in Path Valley, Pennsylvania. In the fall of 1883, he entered the law office of Benjamin Harris Brewster in Philadelphia. At the time, Brewster was the United States Attorney General in the cabinet of Chester A. Arthur. After taking a two-year course of law at University of Philadelphia, Snively passed the Philadelphia Bar exam, as well as the Bar of his home county of Franklin.

In the spring of 1886, he moved to Duluth, Minnesota. Snively practiced law in partnership with Chas P. Craig for roughly six years under the name Snively and Craig. However they became separated in the financial massacre of 1893. Soon after, he began showing interest in farm land development. In 1900, together with J. L. Washburn and John G. Williams, they purchased over 200,000 acres (800 km²) of land from the Northern Pacific Railway Company in Carlton and St. Louis county. The three were involved with the sale and development of the land for several years.

Snively owned a large 400 acre (1.6 km²) farm above the Duluth suburbs of Lester Park and Lakeside. He often took leisurely hikes through the valley, exploring the woods. During these strolls, Snively began to envision a park drive that would rival any other in Duluth. After donating 60 acres (240,000 m²) of his own property, Snively set to work contacting all the other landowners in the area, successfully garnering donations of the necessary rights-of-way for his road, as well as some of the necessary funds to build it.

A crew of workers was hired and construction on Snively's road began in the late fall of 1899 and continued into the following summer. During the road's construction phase, Snively was also building a house to serve as a centerpiece to his hilltop farm. By the Spring of 1900 the road reached about a mile up from its starting point just north of Lester Park. Snively built the road in a way that it crossed the Amity creek in nearly a dozen places, creating the need for the construction of many rustic wooden bridges. Upon its completion, Snively presented his new road to the city of Duluth as a designated parkway, and turned his attention to his farm and elsewhere.

Despite its popularity as a scenic parkway, the city of Duluth neglected to maintain Snively's road, and within a decade all the wooden bridges had fallen to ruin, making the road impassable to vehicle traffic. In 1910, the road was handed over to the Duluth's park commission, and a new plan for its rejuvenation was developed. The park board hired an architectural landscaping firm to design a new series of bridges for the road. During 1911, the roadway was regraded and graveled. News of the board's intentions delighted Snively. He even involved himself in the planning and building of the new bridges. Over the next year, nine stone-arch bridges were built simultaneously. When Snively's road reopened on July 6, 1912, it was renamed Amity Parkway, and became a popular destination for tourists and locals alike. Years later, when a route change threw two of the bridges into disuse, it became known as Seven Bridges Road.

For more than ninety years, seven of the original nine bridges remained structurally sound. However, most had become damaged from the decades of weather, vandalism, and car accidents. Realizing the historic value of the structures and using state and federal funds, the city of Duluth began restoring the bridges in 1996, completing the last one in 2008.

• List of mayors of Duluth, Minnesota

• The History of Duluth, Minnesota's Seven Bridges Road
• The History of Skyline Parkway
• Magney-Snively Trail
• Samuel F. Snively - Autobiographical Sketch