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CA&E - Chicago River Bridge
Photos
Metropolitan West Side Elevated Railway bridge
1911 - View of Metropolitan West Side Elevated Railway Company elevated bascule bridge over the Chicago River between West Van Buren Street and West Jackson Boulevard in the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois. An elevated train is crossing the bridge in this image.
Chicago Daily News negatives collection, DN-0056530. Courtesy of Chicago History Museum.
BH Photo #233524
Description
This bridge - actually a pair of double-track bridges side by side - was the very first Scherzer rolling lift bridge ever designed. It was designed by William Scherzer just prior to his death in July 1893 and was constructed in 1895 at the same time as the adjacent Van Buren Street bridge, a Scherzer rolling lift bridge designed after William Scherzer's death. -- Info from HAER Report MA-35, Fort Point Channel Rolling Lift BridgeFacts
- Overview
- Lost Pony truss bridge over Chicago River on Chicago, Aurora & Elgin Railroad
- Location
- Chicago, Cook County, Illinois
- Status
- Removed but not replaced
- History
- Built 1895 for Metropolitan-West Side Elevated Railroad, removed ca 1958 after the CA&E folded in 1957
- Builders
- - Charles L. Strobel
- Elmira Bridge Co. of Elmira, New York.
- Fitzsimons & Connell Co. of Chicago, Illinois
- Scherzer Rolling Lift Bridge Co. of Chicago, Illinois
- Railroads
- - Chicago Rapid Transit Company (CRT)
- Chicago, Aurora & Elgin Railroad (CA&E)
- Interurban
- Metropolitan West Side Elevated Railroad (Met; MWSER)
- Rapid Transit
- Design
- Truss bascule
- Also called
- MWSER - Chicago River Bridge
- Approximate latitude, longitude
- +41.87755, -87.63769 (decimal degrees)
41°52'39" N, 87°38'16" W (degrees°minutes'seconds") - Approximate UTM coordinates
- 16/447087/4636377 (zone/easting/northing)
- Quadrangle map:
- Chicago Loop
- Inventory number
- BH 52688 (Bridgehunter.com ID)
Update Log
- December 7, 2021: Updated by John Marvig: added builders
- May 26, 2015: Updated by Luke: Added photograph
- August 13, 2014: New photo from Luke
- July 17, 2014: Updated by Luke Harden: Added categories "Chicago, Aurora & Elgin Railroad", "Interurban"
- July 25, 2013: Updated by Luke Harden: Added category "First of its kind"
- August 13, 2012: Updated by Luke Harden: Added category "Railroad"
- July 17, 2012: Updated by Luke Harden: Added category "Metropolitan West Side Elevated Railroad"
- June 18, 2012: Added by Frank Hicks
Sources
- Frank Hicks
- Douglas Butler
- rrpix - Richard Horn's Photography - Image of a CA&E train crossing the bridge on July 7, 1950
- Luke
- John Marvig - marvigj27 [at] gmail [dot] com
- The Railroad Gazette 1895-02-15: Vol 27
© Copyright 2021, Historic Bridge Foundation and contributors.
This page's URL is http://bridgehunter.com/il/cook/bh52688/
This page's URL is http://bridgehunter.com/il/cook/bh52688/
Built for Metropolitan West Side Elevated, not CA&E, which came in on trackage rights after 1907. Abandoned and removed after Chicago transit Authority abandoned this portion of Elevated June 1958