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This bridge is an unaltered, still functioning, and excellent example of a traditional Chicago bascule bridge on the Calumet River. Its trusses follow a similar design to some of the other bascule bridges on the Calumet River as well as on the Sanitary and Ship Canal. The bridge retains its original, handsomely decorated bridgetender buildings and the historic integrity of the trusses is good as well. It would appear that the original pedestrian railings have been replaced however.
The Ketler-Elliott Company constructed the superstructure, while the Fitzsimons and Connell Company constructed the substructure. A photo of founder Charles Fitz Simons is shown below.
Thanks to Tom Winkle for providing boat transportation to assist in the photo-documentation of this historic bridge.
Truss bridges with riveted connections like the 100th Street Bridge required riveting in the field where the members of the truss were riveted together at the connection gusset plates. In the field, rivets would be heated in a portable forge. One of the most common types is shown to the left, with a diagram of the blower for this forge shown to the right. Larger forges were also used to efficiently heat larger quantities of rivets, and these were called rivet furnaces. A few examples from the early 20th Century are shown below.
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Main Plaque WM HALE THOMPSONMAYOR
CHICAGO PLAN COMMISSION BENNETT PARSONS & FROST - CONSULTING ARCHITECTS CHICAGO CHAPTER OF AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS ILLINOIS SOCIETY OF ARCHITECTS CHICAGO ART COMMISSION
JAMES J. BARRETT - PLUMBING 1927 |
Chicago and Cook County are home to one of the largest collections of historic bridges in the country, and no other city in the world has more movable bridges. HistoricBridges.org is proud to offer the most extensive coverage of historic Chicago bridges on the Internet.
General Chicago / Cook County Bridge Resources
Chicago's Bridges - By Nathan Holth, author of HistoricBridges.org, this book provides a discussion of the history of Chicago's movable bridges, and includes a virtual tour discussing all movable bridges remaining in Chicago today. Despite this broad coverage, the book is presented in a compact format that is easy to take with you and carry around for reference on a visit to Chicago. The book includes dozens of full color photos. Only $9.95 U.S! ($11.95 Canadian). Order Now Direct From The Publisher! or order on Amazon.
Chicago River Bridges - By Patrick T. McBriarty, this is a great companion to Holth's book shown above. This much larger book offers an extremely in-depth exploration of Chicago's movable highway bridges, including many crossings that have not existed for many years. Order Now Direct From The Publisher! or order on Amazon.
View Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) Overview of Chicago Bascule Bridges (HAER Data Pages, PDF)
Chicago Loop Bridges - Chicago Loop Bridges is another website on the Internet that is a great companion to the HistoricBridges.org coverage of the 18 movable bridges within the Chicago Loop. This website includes additional information such as connections to popular culture, overview discussions and essays about Chicago's movable bridges, additional videos, and current news and events relating to the bridges.
Additional Online Articles and Resources - This page is a large gathering of interesting articles and resources that HistoricBridges.org has uncovered during research, but which were not specific to a particular bridge listing.
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