Most people think the Minneapolis Skyway is a winter object. It is. The 9.5-mile system was built between 1962 and the late 90s specifically so that downtown office workers could get to lunch in February without putting on a coat. But the skyway is also climate-controlled in August, when downtown Minneapolis hits 95° and the surface sidewalks become uncomfortable in the early afternoon. The fact that almost no tourist guidebook mentions this is a small civic mystery.
The picks below are summer routes — picked for the routing graph the way you would in winter, but with shade percentages that reflect the system as a continuous cover. The trick in summer that does not apply in winter is that some skyway corridors face west through curtain-wall glass and heat up by 2 PM. We avoid those (notably the western leg through the IDS Center’s Crystal Court at peak hour). The eastern corridor through Wells Fargo and the Northstar is the coolest summer route in the system.