Chicago River BridgesPresentation

by Patrick T. McBriarty

asce Iowa Chapter November 14, 2016

WRITTEN BY

Patrick T. McBriartyILLUSTRATED BY

Johanna H. Kim www.PTMWerks.com

Just Released

978-1-941216-02-6October 2014

DRAWBRIDGES

Open and Close

978-1-941216-04-0April 2015

AIRPLANES

Take Off and Land

978-1-941216-14-9October 2016

CITY RAILWAYS

Go Above and Below

The PTM Werks Series is published by CurlyQ Press, an imprint of Applewood Books, distributed by Ingram and available at finer booksellers, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble.com

The Story starts at Kinzie Street

Why Bridges?

• Engineer-want-to-be

• Magic and gritty aesthetic

• Fantastic untold history

• Chicago has long been a crucible for drawbridge innovation

• Wanted to share this new appreciation for Bridges

Chicago DrawbridgesThe documentary co-produced with Chicago filmmaker Stephen Hatch

• Ancient creations - Natural & Man-made

• Universal, Utilitarian, and magical

• Ubiquitous - simplest forms are still in use today

• Elemental to our civilization - most everyone has a bridge story

• Bridges infected our language, customs, & relations

Bridges are fascinating

Chicago’s Drawbridges

• Most Drawbridges in North America

• 64 highway & railroad

• 41 are operational.

• Second to Amsterdam (approx. 90+).

• Spring and Fall openings on the Chicago River.

• Open on Demand on the Calumet River.

the Drawbridge Capital of the World

• Chicagoans hold 120 plus of approx. 350 U.S. Patents on drawbridges.

• 60% of approx. 120 bascule patents.

• Most modern drawbridge designs were invented, built, and/or tested here.

• Host to the greatest variety of moveable bridge designs.

Y-Shaped River

Rapid Growth

Chicago in 1874

Historic Waterway

Busy Waterway

Flat Prairie Landscape

Bridges by DecadeCity of Chicago Chicago River Bridges

Decade Population Draw Fixed

1830 1,000† 0 0

1840 4,853 3 0

1850 29,963 7 2

1860 109,260 16 1

1870 298,977 26 0

1880 503,185 36 1

1890 1,099,850 48 4

1900 1,698,575 57 11

1910 2,185,283 60 13

1920 2,701,705 60 15

1930 3,376,438 68 18

1940 3,396,808 71 17

1950 3,620,962 72 16

1960 3,550,404 73 18

1970 3,369,359 67 24

1980 3,005,072 61 28

1990 2,783,726 61 29

2000 2,896,016 57 31

2010 2,695,598 55 32Table includes both street and railroad bridges.

† Estimated to be approximately 80% Native Americans.

Evolution of Bridge Designs

Chicago’s First Bridges Kinzie Street Bridge (1832-1839) & South Branch Bridge (1833-1838)

Courtesy of visualizedconcepts inc.

Chicago’s 1st DrawbridgeDearborn Street Bridge (1834-1839)

Pontoon Swing BridgesRandolph Street (1838-1847), Kinzie Street (1839-1849),

Clark Street (1840-1849), Wells Street (1841-1847), & Madison Street Bridges (1847-1849)

Holy Name Cathedral 735 N. State Street -- Photo Credit Keturah Davis

Pontoon Swing Operation

Courtesy of visualizedconcepts inc.

Pontoon Bridges Destroyed by the Flood of 1849

Innovations and Pontoon Turntable Swing Bridge

(1849-1860s)

Clark Street Bridge looking east in 1857 from Ballou's Pictorial Drawing-Room Companion.

Pivot or Swing Bridges (1852-1890s)

Turntables

Swing Bridge Design

Courtesy of visualizedconcepts inc.

Chicago - a center for Bridge Building & new Technology

• Attracted Top Engineers

• John Ericson

• Ralph Modjeski

• Theodore Rall

• Joseph B. Strauss & many others.

• Bridge building companies

• American Bridge Company

• Chicago Bridge & Iron,

• Great Lakes Dredge & Dock,

• Fox & Howard

• Scherzer Rolling Lift Bascule Bridge Co., etc.

• 1st iron bridge

• Rush St. in 1864.

• 1st steel swing bridge in 1879

• C&NW Bridge

• Glasgow Railroad Bridge (Missouri River)

Steel, Ships & Industry

• Steel meant larger ships

• Busy Chicago River

• 21,000 arrivals and departures in 1887.

• The Calumet River & Harbor develops after 1871

• Required a wider river channel.

• River and Harbors Act of 1890

Inadequacy of the Swing Bridge

Experimental Period

• Federal oversight

• A new design was required

• Inventors and engineers see opportunity

• Shift to the Calumet River

• Yet still need Chicago River Bridges

First Experiment: Harman Folding-Lift Bridge

Weed Street Bridge (1891-1899)

2nd Canal Street Bridge (1893-1903)

Courtesy of the Chicago Maritime Museum

Second Experiment: Vertical-Lift Bridge

3rd S. Halsted Street Bridge (1894-1931)

Pennsylvania Railroad & Amtrak Bridge

3rd Experiment: Scherzer Rolling-Lift Bridge

Bascule Bridge Operation

Bascule is a French meaning seesaw. It is derived from baculer, which means to strike on the buttocks and likely originally described landing on one’s buttocks (bas is the French equivalent of down; -culer is a verbal derivative of rump or buttocks).

Scherzer Rolling Lift Bridge Operation

Courtesy of visualizedconcepts inc.

5th Van Buren Street & the Met Bridges (1895-1956)

Courtesy of the MWRD

Cermak Road Bridge

8-track Railroad Bridge

City of Chicago Engineers

Fixed Trunnion Bascule

Tower Bridge in London built between 1886 and 1894.

Cortland Street Bridge - 1902

3 of 10 Remain • Cortland St.

• W. Division St.

• Kinzie St. (E. Division St. removed - July 2014)

Functional -1st Gen. Chicago-type

2nd Gen. Chicago-type (20 of 24 Remain)

Washington Street Bridge (1914-Present)

Chicago Ave. Bridge

(1914-Present)

integrates the bridge houses into the

architecture

Lake Street Bridge (1916-Present)

1st Chicago-type double-deck, double-leaf bridge

LaSalle Street Bridge (1928-Present)

2nd Gen. Chicago-type - wm. Bennett’s - Beaux Arts Influence

N. Ashland Ave. Bridge (1936-Present)

2nd Gen. Refinement Period Chicago-type - Art Deco

State Street Bridge Built in 1949

Post WWII Chicago-type - Art Deco

Further design refinements. More modern architectural styles.One-person operation.

N. Halsted Street Bridge (river) (1955-Present)

Post WWII Chicago-type - Single Bridge House

Columbus Drive Bridge (1982-Present) Modern Chicago-type

2nd Largest Bascule Bridge in the World

Future of Chicago Drawbridges

• Main & South Branch Status quo

• Bridge lifts spring & fall

• Replacement of older North Branch drawbridges.

• The greatest working drawbridge museum in the world.

Chicago has the greatest variety of drawbridge designs of any city on earth.

• Swing Bridges

• Center pier Swing Bridges

• Bobtail Swing Bridges

• Eccentric Bobtail Swing Bridge

• Vertical-lift Bridges

• Bascule Bridges

• Chicago-type single leaf bridges

• Chicago-type double leaf bridges

• Chicago-type double deck, double deck bridges

• Page bascule bridge

• Rall bascule Bridge

• Scherzer rolling-lift bridges

• Strauss heel-trunnion bridges

• Strauss fixed trunnion bridge

2016 Season Boat Tours

Saturday,  May  14th  9:00am-­‐11:00am  Saturday,  June  25th  9:00am-­‐11:00am  Saturday,  July  16th  9:00am-­‐11:00am  Tuesday,  August  23rd  5:45pm-­‐7:45pm  Saturday,  September  17th  9:00am-­‐11:00am  Saturday,  October  1st  9:00am-­‐11:00am

Chicago River Bridges Tour

$40 $20

$17.50

Just Released!! April 2015

$17.50

Chicago Bridge Stories

• First bridge in Chicago in 1832.

• 1st Dearborn Street Bridge and Holy Name Cathedral 1839-1840.

• The Flood of 1849 destroyed six bridges.

• Destruction of the Rush Street Bridge in 1863.

• Great Chicago Fire of 1871 destroyed eight bridges.

Bridge Stories (cont.)

• Michigan Avenue Bridge opening almost crushed four cars.

• Drucci’s then Sgts.Touhy & Klatzko’s jump of the Michigan Avenue Bridge in 1922.

• Flood of 1992 at Kinzie Street Bridge.

• Richard Dorsay living in LSD Bridge in 2004.