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About Lakeshore Drive and Lincoln Park
Lakeshore Drive is a major non-interstate limited access highway which follows the Lake Michigan Shoreline in Chicago. The highway is historically significant as an early example of a limited access highway. As evidence of how early an example it is, portions of the highway are also historically significant for being constructed under a Depression-era Works Progress Administration project conducted between 1937 and 1941. The highway passes through Lincoln Park, which is a large park that runs along Lake Michigan for a significant distance in the area of Chicago which is itself known as the Lincoln Park neighborhood. Lincoln Park is considered historically significant and the park is home to a large Historic District included on the National Register of Historic Places. The section of Lakeshore Drive which passes through Lincoln Park is a section that was constructed as part of the aforementioned 1937-1941 WPA project. The project included a number of bridges which incorporate architectural/aesthetic detailing and design, most in an architectural style based on the ideas of Art Deco. As such, many of those bridges which survive today are considered contributing structures to the Lincoln Park Historic District. These bridges should also be considered historically significant as surviving infrastructure from an early limited access highway as well.
About This Bridge
This bridge carries Lakeshore Drive over Fullerton Parkway. Overall, the bridge appears to retain good historic integrity, with the original superstructure in place, as well as the original railings and architectural detailing. The original decorative lighting elements on the bridge were restored by the city as well.
This bridge also appears to be technologically significant. The bridge is a steel rigid-frame bridge, which is a rare type. The popularity of the rigid-frame type of bridge varies depending on the state or province, however in all cases the reinforced concrete rigid-frame was far more common than a steel rigid-frame. In Illinois, the nearby Diversey Harbor Inlet Bridge appears to the only other example of a steel rigid-frame bridge on public roads in the entire state, according to the National Bridge Inventory. As such, this bridge should be assigned a high level of technological significance on a state level. Nationally, the bridges appear to be early examples of a steel rigid-frame bridge, having been built in 1940. Steel rigid-frames are more of a modern phenomenon.
Additional technological significance comes the fact that the bridge's steel beams are rolled beams that are built-up at the ends by way of welds. Near the abutments, small curved pieces of steel are welded to the rolled i-beams that provide the majority of the superstructure. These welded details appear to be original and unaltered. As such, this bridge is noteworthy as an early example of the use of welding for built-up beams in bridges.
This bridge is perhaps the most important bridge in the Lincoln Park historic district not only because of its technological significance but also its historic integrity. As such, its preservation should be given high priority.
Information and Findings From Lincoln Park National Register Historic District NominationDiscussion of Bridge South of the Diversey Pkwy. Bridge is the Fullerton Pkwy. Bridge. This reinforced concrete structure is also a simple Art Deco style bridge with elements found on other WPA Lake Shore Dr. bridges. There are some details of this bridge's design, however, that are quite unique. Above the flattened arch span, the rail has the same band of double square openings as were used on the Diversey Pkwy. bridge. The abutment walls that flank the opening are unusual, in that they have projecting concrete elements that are barrel shaped. Extending up from these elements are massive barrel shaped lanterns. In the past, two of these light fixtures were missing. The City of Chicago's recent rehabilitation of the Fullerton Pkwy. bridge has included repairing the existing fixtures and replicating the missing ones. Discussion of Lakeshore Drive The widening and improving of Lake Shore Dr. into a limited access highway between 1937 and 1941 was probably the most ambitious of all of the WPA projects in Lincoln Park. The intent was to create a continuous route for heavy traffic that would segregate" persons passing through the park as a matter of convenience and those who come to it to enjoy its many attractions and recreation facilities" (CPO Annual Report 1937,106). This included a grade separation system that resulted in stylized Art Deco concrete bridge overpasses at the La Salle Dr. extension, Fullerton Pkwy., Diversey Pkwy., Belmont Dr., Lawrence Dr. and Wilson Dr., most of which had attractive engaged lighting fixtures. There are also a number of underpass bridges that allow pedestrian access beneath Lake Shore Dr. Some are utilitarian concrete structures that are essentially unadorned. An underpass that allows pedestrians to cross beneath Lake Shore Dr. at Barry Ave. is a stylized Deco structure that was likely designed by Buchsbaum. It is documented that four simple lannon stone pedestrian underpass bridges in the Montrose Ave. extension east of Lake Shore Dr. were designed by Buchsbaum. There were also some small sections of Art Deco retaining walls on Lake Shore Dr. that can probably be attributed to Buchsbaum. There is a remaining section of wall at the Lake Shore Dr. curve east of the Oak Street triangle. Based on "modern principles of highway design" the Lake Shore Dr. improvements allowed for a straight two-way route which totalled eight lanes at its widest point between the La Salle Dr. extension and Belmont Dr. (CPO Seventh Annual Report 1941,157). This southern area of the drive included a flexible rush-hour traffic system of hydraulic lane separators. This mechanical system of concrete "movable fins," would raise to configure various lanes of traffic at different times of day (ibid.). The hydraulic separators did not continue north of Belmont Dr. to Foster Dr. This area had a width of only six lanes, allowing for a center island landscape that followed the earlier stylistic treatment of the boulevard system. Lake Shore Drive's grade separation system continued north from the La Salle Dr. extension. The section between Belmont Dr. and Foster Dr. had four cloverleaf ramps linking the drive with the park and city streets. Today, Lake Shore Dr. is a major arterial spine that extends through the entire seven mile length of Lincoln Park. The drive's current appearance primarily resulted from a WPA funded project between 1937 and 1941. Lake Shore Drive was developed as a limited access highway that would provide a continuous traffic route through the park. Re-grading was done and a number of bridges were constructed so that many portions of the new drive were elevated above the roads and paths that allowed access throughout Lincoln Park. |
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