|
Key Facts |
Bridge Name | Type | Road | Location | City | Crossing |
|
Calumet River Railroad Bridges |
Vertical Lift (Truss) |
Railroad (Various) |
Cook County, IL |
Chicago |
Calumet River |
|
Technical Facts (Lakeshore and Michigan Southern Bridges) |
|
Construction Date |
Main Span Length | Tower Height | Bridge Width | Skew Amount | Designer |
| 1912-1915 | 209.75 Feet | Aprox. 190 Feet above water level. | 31 Feet Each | 50 Degrees | Waddell and Harrington of Kansas City, Missouri |
|
Technical Facts (Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railway Bridge) |
|
Construction Date |
Main Span Length | Tower Height | Bridge Width | Skew Amount | Designer | Fabricator | Superstructure Contractor | Substructure Contractor |
| 1912-1913 | 210 Feet | Aprox. 190 Feet above water level. | 31.25 Feet | 50 Degrees | Waddell and Harrington of Kansas City, Missouri | Pennsylvania Steel Company, of Steelton, PA | Kelly-Atkinson Company of Chicago, IL | Dravo Contracting Company of Pittsburgh, PA |
The bridges are currently Norfolk Southern owned. There used to be two of the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railway Bridge also but one was demolished in 1965. The Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railroad bridge is the one that is in the down position in my photos. The two that are in the up position are the abandoned Lakeshore and Michigan Southern railroad bridges.
There is what appears to be the remains of a Strauss bascule bridge next to these bridges on the northwest quadrant of the bridges. It is just the counterweight end of the bridge, with the actual truss span gone. HABS HAER mentions this bridge was demolished in 1980. Rick La Fever provides the following additional details:
This bridge once carried the Baltimore & Ohio Chicago
Terminal Railroad(B&OC.T.R.R.) across the Calumet River. It was hit by an
outbound freighter in either 1979 or 1980 and was knocked off its' base hinge.
The US Coast Guard deemed the bridge unsafe for maritime use(they felt it would
fall into the waterway blocking the channel) so it was demolished. The CSX
Corp(successor to the B&OC.T.) had other routes around the river so they just
rerouted the almost non-existent business to other lines.
At the time only the Chicago Short Line Railroad was using the bridge regularly.
The CSL now uses the NS bridge to reach some trackage on the west side of the
waterway since most of the line is on the east bank of the waterway.
HABS HAER feels that these bridges are the most notable and central railroading symbol for Chicago, the railroad capital of North America. I agree with them, as these are extremely unusual vertical lift bridges, and they are in a place where many people see them. The history of their design, which HABS HAER provides extensive information on, also is additional reason for this distinction. Be sure to check out their page. Also note that they have very nice color photos: check out my photo gallery for full size versions of those photos that are 1mb JPEGS instead of 50mb TIFFs!
