Kinzie Street railroad bridge
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| Kinzie Street railroad bridge | |
|---|---|
 Aerial view showing Kinzie Street railroad bridge (lower bridge) in the raised position |
|
| Official name | Chicago & Northwestern Railroad, Kinzie Street drawbridge |
| Crosses | Chicago River |
| Locale | Chicago |
| Design | bascule bridge |
| Longest span | 170 feet (52 m)[1] |
| Total length | 195.83 feet (59.69 m)[1] |
| Width | 41.7 feet (12.7 m)[2] |
| Beginning date of construction | 1906 |
| Opening date | 19 September 1908[2] |
| Destruction date | 2001 |
| Coordinates | Coordinates: |
The Chicago and North Western Railway Kinzie Street railroad bridge is a single leaf bascule bridge across the north branch of the Chicago River in downtown Chicago, Illinois. At the time of its opening in 1908 it was the world's longest and heaviest bascule bridge.[1][2] It was designated a Chicago Landmark on 12 December 2007.[3]
[edit] History
The first pedestrian crossing across the Chicago River was constructed across the mouth of the North Branch, just south of Kinzie Street in 1832.[4] On 17 July 1848 the City of Chicago authorized the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad to construct a bridge across the river at about the same location. This pontoon bridge—the first railroad bridge in Chicago—was completed in 1852;[5][2] it allowed trains to access the railroad's new Wells Street Station and subsequently industry on the north bank of the Chicago River as far as the Ogden Slip and Navy Pier. The original bridge was replaced by a swing bridge in 1879 that, along with the Glasgow Railroad Bridge across the Missouri River, was one of the United States' first all steel railroad bridges.[6] This bridge was constructed from Bessemer steel, which proved too brittle and so the bridge was replaced again in 1898.[2] This new bridge was short-lived as the Army Corps of Engineers ordered the clearing of three swing bridges near Kinzie Street that were obstructing river traffic, and so construction started on a new bridge in 1906. The new bridge, which is a bascule bridge, opened on 19 September 1908. The Chicago and North Western Railway closed Wells Street Station in 1911 when they opened a new terminal on the west bank of the river (now the Ogilvie Transportation Center), leaving the Kinzie Street railroad bridge to handle only freight traffic. After the Chicago Sun-Times moved their printing plant out of downtown Chicago in 2001[7] there was no longer any traffic across the bridge and it has since been permanently raised in the open position.
[edit] Structure
The bridge superstructure consists of two spans constructed by the Strauss Bascule & Concrete Bridge Company: a 26-foot (7.9 m) plate-girder span on the west bank of the river and the 170-foot (52 m) movable main span that rests on the east trunnion pier.[2] This trunnion pier is constructed on foundations that extend to the bedrock 94 feet (29 m) below the river bed. To achieve this caissons were sunk to a depth of 29 feet (8.8 m) below the river bed and then 10-foot (3.0 m) diameter wells were sunk the remaining 64 feet (20 m).[8] The substructure of the bridge was constructed by the Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Company.
[edit] References and notes
- ^ a b c Holth, Nathan. Kinzie Street Railroad Bridge. Historic Bridges of Michigan and Elsewhere. Retrieved on 2008-02-19.
- ^ a b c d e f Spivey, Justin M. Chicago & Northwestern Railway, Kinzie Street Bridge. Historic American Engineering Record. Retrieved on 2008-02-19.
- ^ (2008-01-01). "CHICAGO LANDMARKS: Individual Landmarks and Landmark Districts designated as of January 1, 2008" (PDF). . Commission on Chicago Landmarks
- ^ Albert F. Scharf. Chicago, 1835 [map]. (1908)
- ^ Tuley, Murray F. (1873). Laws and Ordinances Governing the City of Chicago. Chicago: Bulletin printing company, pp. 268–269.
- ^ Misa, Thomas J. (1995). A Nation of Steel: The Making of Modern America, 1865-1925. JHU Press, p. 75. ISBN 0801860520.
- ^ Larson, Lisa. "Chicago Sun-Times in full production at new $120m plant", Newspapers & Technology, 2001-11-01. Retrieved on 2008-02-19.
- ^ (1911) in Colby, Frank Moore: New International Yearbook: A Compendium of the World's Progress for the year 1910. New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, p. 263.
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