Last Look at the Mississippi (A Homage to John...

Looking towards the 10th Avenue Bridge from the Stone Arch Bridge. Berryman jumped from the nearby Washington Avenue Bridge on January 7, 1972. One of the great poets of our generation, who spent the last 20 years of his life here before committing suicide. From here, the Mississippi heads down to New Orleans and the Gulf, passing through Winona, Minnesota, just a short distance away, another famous jumping place for the romantic fabled Indian maiden of the same name, sadly, which I'm sure Berryman had in mind when he chose this form of suicide, to be free of his long battle with alcoholism.