In the 19th century, Burnsville was considered a long distance from downtown Minneapolis. Rail access came in 1864 and Burnsville became a resort town, with cottages along Crystal Lake as well as Orchard Lake and Marion Lake in nearby Lakeville. The Bloomington Ferry provided river crossings until 1889 when the original Bloomington Ferry Bridge was built. By 1920, the Lyndale Avenue Drawbridge opened next to Black Dog Lake, extending Minneapolis' first north south highway to the rural communities of southern Minnesota. Later the bridge, upgraded several times, would be replaced by the I-35W Minnesota River bridge. In 1950, just before the World War II postwar housing boom, Burnsville was still a quiet township with a population of 583 people. School was taught in a one-room schoolhouse containing eight grades.