The development of an extensive railroad network after the Civil War was a key factor in the growth of lumbering, iron mining, wheat growing, and other industries. By 2000, Minnesota had a total of 5,680 rail mi (9,141 km). In 2000, 35,362,987 tons of metallic ores originated from Minnesota, and accounted for 51% of the total rail tonnage originated within the state. Amtrak serves Minneapolis–St. Paul en route from Chicago to Seattle.
Planning and supervision of mass transportation in the Twin Cities metropolitan area are under the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan Transit Commission, a public corporation. The national Greyhound bus line was founded in Hibbing in 1914.
Minnesota had 132,250 mi (212,835 km) of public roads and streets in 2000, of which 116,232 mi (187,057 km) were rural and 16,018 mi (25,778 km) urban. I-35 links Minneapolis–St. Paul with Duluth, and I-94 connects the Twin Cities with Moorhead and Fargo, North Dakota. In 2000, there were 2,625,595 registered automobiles, 1,989,580 trucks, and 14,765 buses; there were 2,940,789 licensed drivers in that year.
The first settlements grew up around major river arteries, especially in the southeast; early traders and settlers arrived first by canoe or keelboat, later by steamer. The port of Duluth-Superior, at the western terminus of the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence Seaway (officially opened in 1959) handled 42.2 million tons of domestic and international cargo in 2000, including bulk grain, coal, metallic ores, and refrigerated commodities. The ports of Minneapolis and St. Paul handle a combined cargo tonnage greater than seven million each year, with agricultural products and scrap iron moving downstream and petroleum products, chemicals, and cement moving upstream.
As of 2002, the state had 380 airports, 74 seaplane bases, 52 heliports, and 1 stolport. Minneapolis–St. Paul International is the state's largest and busiest airport, with 16,959,014 passengers enplaned in 2000.