North Avenue Bridge

Above: Photo taken from HABS HAER, showing the bridge without construction equipment near it.

This Historic Bridge Was Demolished in September 2006!

Visit HABS HAER's Page For This Historic Bridge

Final Visit To Bridge: August 12, 2006

Many bridge enthusiasts know that Chicago is the bascule bridge capital of the world. The bascule bridge type of bridge was developed there, and to this day no other city on the planet has more bascule bridges. Given this, one would think that these bridges in Chicago would be preserved and considered the pride and joy of the city. For the most part, this appears to be the case, with some exceptions. The North Avenue Bridge is one of those exceptions. One of the oldest bascule bridges in the town, and with ornate portal designs and builder plaques, city officials chose to demolish this historic bridge, wiping out a critical part of what makes Chicago the beautiful and prosperous city it is today.

 In its place, city officials are all excited because they are building a "suspension bridge" that they say looks like the Golden Gate Bridge. However, the drawing of the bridge they are building looks nothing like the Golden Gate Bridge I am aware of in San Francisco. Last time I checked, the Golden Gate Bridge had no cable-stays as part of its design! The design Chicago has come up with looks like a half cable-stayed half suspension bridge. It looks fake to me. I think it is the result of some engineers having way too much time on their hands. Time that would have been better spent planning a solution that would save the North Avenue bascule bridge while at the same time meeting the demands of traffic on the road. Never mind the fact that you could probably string about 50 of this little bridge they are building in Chicago along the real Golden Gate Bridge. The way the engineers talk about how this new bridge, in their minds, looks like the Golden Gate Bridge, it is like they are jealous of San Francisco. Chicago should not be jealous. They should instead seek to continue to maintain the movable bridges in the city, which define Chicago's historic identity just like San Francisco's bridge. The North Avenue Bridge was what defined Chicago's unique identity. With North Avenue, which I understand is a rather busy road and probably needs more lanes of traffic than the current truss bridge provides, I would rather see a simple beam bridge erected next to the bascule bridge forming a one-way couplet. The North Avenue Bridge is among the oldest bascule bridges in Chicago, and is similar to the oldest, which is Cortland Street Bridge. It should have instead been preserved.

Given that Chicago still has dozens of bascule bridges remaining, including a few that are similar to this, and many that have been restored and appear to be in no danger of demolition, perhaps I am being unrealistic in suggesting that this bridge, on one of Chicago's busier roads, should not have been demolished. But one of the things that makes Chicago special is the number of bascule bridges they actually have remaining. And if all of North Avenue was safely diverted to the temporary bridge they built, I see no reason why a one-way couplet could not work. I personally feel that the temporary bridge should have instead been the permanent east-bound traffic bridge. This solution would have provided the congested North Avenue with additional lanes of traffic. But it is too late for that now. This unique historic artifact is lost forever, reduced to a simple set of photos available on this website and on HABS HAER. With this bridge gone, I challenge both the residents and city officials to never make this mistake again. Instead, I hope that "bridge demolition" will never be heard in the city of Chicago again. Rather, I hope that maintenance and rehabilitation will be the activities that the city chooses to manage its beautiful historic bridge population.

I did not learn about the impending doom of this bridge until it was almost too late. I managed to plan an emergency trip over to Chicago in August of 2006. While I also worked on finishing my Chicago bridges documentation project, the real destination of this trip was to photograph this bridge. While construction of the temporary bridge, and rather rude construction workers who would not let me near one side of the bridge to get photos, hindered some of my side view photos, I feel I have a good photo-documentation of this structure. I hope my photos can help fill the massive void that will be left in the wake of this bridge's demolition. In addition to my photos, HABS HAER did their part and composed an extensive historical narrative for this bridge... much more extensive than for other Chicago bridges. It provides a rich overview of the history of this special bridge. The HAER entry for this bridge also provides a color side view photo of the bridge... the angle that was obstructed by the temporary bridge when I visited the bridge. Finally, the HAER entry has some black and white photos that include views of the inside workings of the bridge, something I could not get to.