The Washington Avenue Bridge carries County Road 122 and the METRO Green Line light rail across the Mississippi River in Minneapolis and connects the East Bank and West Bank portions of the University of Minnesota campus. The bridge has two decks, with the lower deck designated for motor vehicle traffic and light rail trains and the upper deck used for pedestrians and bicycles. It is a utilitarian structure with simple architecture, but it has cultural significance because thousands of students, faculty, staff, and visitors walk across it every day.

The Metro Green Line is an 11-mile (18 km) light rail line that connects the central business districts of Minneapolis and Saint Paul in Minnesota as well as the University of Minnesota. An extension is under construction that will extend the line to the southwest connecting St. Louis Park, Hopkins, Minnetonka and Eden Prairie. The line follows the path of former Metro Transit bus route 16 along University Avenue and Washington Avenue. It is the second light-rail line in the region, after the Blue Line, which opened in 2004 and connects Minneapolis with the southern suburb of Bloomington.