Kinzie Street railroad bridge
Encyclopedia
The Chicago and North Western Railway
's Kinzie Street railroad bridge (also known as the Carroll Avenue 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. Previous bridges on the same site included the first bridge to cross the Chicago River, Chicago's first railroad bridge, and one of first all-steel bridges in the United States.
The Chicago Sun-Times
, the last railroad customer to the east of the bridge, moved their printing plant out of downtown Chicago in 2000, and the bridge has been unused since. It was designated a Chicago Landmark in 2007.
and Near West Side
community areas
of Chicago. To the south is the historic area of Wolf Point
at the confluence of the main stem of the Chicago River with the north and south branches, and to the east is 350 West Mart Center
and Merchandise Mart
. The railroad track across the bridge is a spur line of the Union Pacific Railroad
, that branches off from the route of the Union Pacific/North Line
about 1 miles (1.6 km) north-west of the bridge. The railroad to the east of the bridge has been abandoned since 2000.
On October 10, 1848 the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad
—Chicago's first railroad—began operating out of a depot on the west side of the Chicago River, near the corner of Canal and Kinzie Streets. Though the City of Chicago had authorized the railroad to construct a bridge across the north branch of the river as early as July 17, 1848, it was not until 1851 that the railroad began to purchase the land needed to build the Wells Street Station
to the east of the river. In order to access the new station a floating pontoon bridge
designed by Jenks D. Perkins was built across the north branch at roughly the same location as the earlier pedestrian bridge. This bridge—the first railroad bridge in Chicago—was completed in 1852, allowing 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 railroad 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. This bridge was constructed from Bessemer steel
, which proved too brittle and so the bridge was replaced again in 1898. The replacement bridge was constructed on land and floated into position, allowing the old structure to be removed and the new one put in place in 27½ hours on March 13 and March 14, 1898.
s were sunk to a depth of 29 feet (8.8 m) below the river bed and then 10 feet (3 m) diameter wells were sunk the remaining 65 feet (19.8 m). The substructure of the bridge was constructed by the Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Company
.
) opened in 1911, Kinzie Street railroad bridge was left to handle freight traffic only. In 1930 Merchandise Mart was opened on the site of the old Wells Street Station. Merchandise Mart was built on air rights
of the Chicago and North Western, and in the spring of 1932 the railroad opened a new freight house underneath the building that was designed to handle 1000 short tons (907,184.7 kg) of outbound and 600 short tons (544,310.8 kg) of inbound freight per day.
. The construction of the Columbus Drive Bridge in 1982 wiped out part of the right of way and the spur to Navy Pier was abandoned. Service to the Tribune Tower
also ended in the 1980s, and by the 1990s traffic along the remaining section of the spur served only one customer, the Chicago Sun-Times, with only one train per day. The newspaper moved their printing plant out of downtown Chicago in early 2001 leaving no traffic across the bridge and it has since been permanently raised in the open position. On December 12, 2007 the bridge was one of 12 historic Chicago railroad bridges to be designated as Chicago Landmarks.
suggested a light rail line along the spur to connect Chicago's downtown stations with the River North neighborhoods.
In 2008 the CIty of Chicago Department of Transportation commissioned an alternatives analysis to look at a proposal to create a transit link from Union Station and the Ogilvie Transportation Center to Michigan Avenue using the Union Pacific train tunnel running under the Apparel Center, the Merchandise Mart and other buildings east toward North Michigan Avenue. The proposed Carroll Avenue Transitway would include the retrofitting of Kinzie Street railroad bridge to carry buses or trams.
Chicago and North Western Railway
The Chicago and North Western Transportation Company was a Class I railroad in the Midwest United States. It was also known as the North Western. The railroad operated more than of track as of the turn of the 20th century, and over of track in seven states before retrenchment in the late 1970s...
's Kinzie Street railroad bridge (also known as the Carroll Avenue bridge) is a single leaf bascule bridge
Bascule bridge
A bascule bridge is a moveable bridge with a counterweight that continuously balances the span, or "leaf," throughout the entire upward swing in providing clearance for boat traffic....
across the north branch of the Chicago River
Chicago River
The Chicago River is a system of rivers and canals with a combined length of that runs through the city of the same name, including its center . Though not especially long, the river is notable for being the reason why Chicago became an important location, as the link between the Great Lakes and...
in downtown Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Illinois. At the time of its opening in 1908 it was the world's longest and heaviest bascule bridge. Previous bridges on the same site included the first bridge to cross the Chicago River, Chicago's first railroad bridge, and one of first all-steel bridges in the United States.
The Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...
, the last railroad customer to the east of the bridge, moved their printing plant out of downtown Chicago in 2000, and the bridge has been unused since. It was designated a Chicago Landmark in 2007.
Location
Kinzie Street railroad bridge is located at 41°53′18.7"N 87°38′21"W, it runs in an east-west orientation, spanning the north branch Chicago River between the Near North SideNear North Side, Chicago
The Near North Side is one of 77 well-defined community areas of Chicago, Illinois, United States. It is located north and east of the Chicago River, just north of the central business district . To its east is Lake Michigan and its northern boundary is the 19th-century city limit of Chicago,...
and Near West Side
Near West Side, Chicago
The Near West Side, one of the 77 defined community areas of Chicago, is located , adjacent to the downtown central business district . The rich history of the Near West Side of Chicago has its genesis in the Hull House phenomenon...
community areas
Community areas of Chicago
Community areas in Chicago refers to the work of the Social Science Research Committee at University of Chicago which has unofficially divided the City of Chicago into 77 community areas. These areas are well-defined and static...
of Chicago. To the south is the historic area of Wolf Point
Wolf Point, Chicago
Wolf Point is the location at the confluence of the North, South and Main Branches of the Chicago River in the present day Near North Side, Loop, and Near West Side community areas of Chicago. This fork in the river is historically important in the development of early Chicago...
at the confluence of the main stem of the Chicago River with the north and south branches, and to the east is 350 West Mart Center
350 West Mart Center
350 West Mart Center is the official name of the 24-floor multipurpose building located in the Near North Side community area of Chicago, at the intersection of the North Branch and the Main Branch of the Chicago River. Designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill in 1977, the building is located in the...
and Merchandise Mart
Merchandise Mart
When opened in 1930, the Merchandise Mart or the Merch Mart, located in the Near North Side, Chicago, Illinois, was the largest building in the world with of floor space. Previously owned by the Marshall Field family, the Mart centralized Chicago's wholesale goods business by consolidating vendors...
. The railroad track across the bridge is a spur line of the Union Pacific Railroad
Union Pacific Railroad
The Union Pacific Railroad , headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, is the largest railroad network in the United States. James R. Young is president, CEO and Chairman....
, that branches off from the route of the Union Pacific/North Line
Union Pacific/North Line
The Union Pacific/North is a commuter rail line in the Chicago metropolitan area that runs between Chicago and Waukegan, Illinois, with some trains continuing to Kenosha, Wisconsin. It is part of the Metra system, but it is operated by the Union Pacific Railroad...
about 1 miles (1.6 km) north-west of the bridge. The railroad to the east of the bridge has been abandoned since 2000.
Previous bridges
Through the 1820s a small settlement grew around Wolf Point, at the forks of the Chicago River. In June 1829, Samuel Miller—who owned a tavern on the north shore of the river beside the forks—and Archibald Clybourne were authorized to run a ferry across the mouth of the north branch of the river, just south of the present Kinzie Street. By 1832 the ferry had been replaced with a pedestrian bridge that was the first bridge to be constructed across the Chicago River.On October 10, 1848 the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad
Galena and Chicago Union Railroad
The Galena and Chicago Union Railroad was a railroad running west from Chicago to Clinton, Iowa and Freeport, Illinois, never reaching Galena, Illinois...
—Chicago's first railroad—began operating out of a depot on the west side of the Chicago River, near the corner of Canal and Kinzie Streets. Though the City of Chicago had authorized the railroad to construct a bridge across the north branch of the river as early as July 17, 1848, it was not until 1851 that the railroad began to purchase the land needed to build the Wells Street Station
Wells Street Station (Chicago)
Wells Street Station was a passenger terminal of the Chicago and North Western Railway, located at the southwest corner of Wells Street and Kinzie Avenue in Chicago, Illinois. It was replaced in 1911 by the Chicago and North Western Terminal on the other side of the North Branch of the Chicago...
to the east of the river. In order to access the new station a floating pontoon bridge
Pontoon bridge
A pontoon bridge or floating bridge is a bridge that floats on water and in which barge- or boat-like pontoons support the bridge deck and its dynamic loads. While pontoon bridges are usually temporary structures, some are used for long periods of time...
designed by Jenks D. Perkins was built across the north branch at roughly the same location as the earlier pedestrian bridge. This bridge—the first railroad bridge in Chicago—was completed in 1852, allowing 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
Navy Pier
Navy Pier is a long pier on the Chicago shoreline of Lake Michigan. It is located in the Streeterville neighborhood of the Near North Side community area. The pier was built in 1916 at a cost of $4.5 million, equivalent to $ today. It was a part of the Plan of Chicago developed by architect and...
.
The original railroad bridge was replaced by a swing bridge
Swing bridge
A swing bridge is a movable bridge that has as its primary structural support a vertical locating pin and support ring, usually at or near to its centre of gravity, about which the turning span can then pivot horizontally as shown in the animated illustration to the right...
in 1879 that, along with the Glasgow Railroad Bridge
Glasgow Railroad Bridge
The Glasgow Railroad Bridge is four-span through truss bridge over the Missouri River belonging to the Kansas City Southern railroad between Howard County, Missouri and Saline County, Missouri....
across the Missouri River, was one of the United States' first all steel railroad bridges. This bridge was constructed from Bessemer steel
Bessemer process
The Bessemer process was the first inexpensive industrial process for the mass-production of steel from molten pig iron. The process is named after its inventor, Henry Bessemer, who took out a patent on the process in 1855. The process was independently discovered in 1851 by William Kelly...
, which proved too brittle and so the bridge was replaced again in 1898. The replacement bridge was constructed on land and floated into position, allowing the old structure to be removed and the new one put in place in 27½ hours on March 13 and March 14, 1898.
Bascule bridge
River traffic and railroad traffic were increasingly in competition with each other. In October 1879 a disaster was narrowly avoided when a seven-coach passenger train with 800 people onboard approached the open swing bridge too fast and was barely able to stop in time, ending up with its front wheels hanging off the approach road over the river. Meanwhile boats on the river were getting larger and finding it increasingly difficult to navigate the bridges at the mouth of the north branch, so the Army Corps of Engineers ordered the clearing of three swing bridges near Kinzie Street that were obstructing river traffic. Therefore in 1907 construction started on a new bascule bridge that would allow more space for boats to pass by on the river.Design and construction
The bridge is designed to carry two railroad tracks across the river. Its superstructure consists of two spans constructed by the Strauss Bascule & Concrete Bridge Company: a 26 feet (7.9 m) plate-girder span on the west bank of the river and the 170 feet (51.8 m) movable main span that rests on the east trunnion pier. The size and weight of the main span, which, when completed would be world's longest and heaviest bascule span, required the trunnion pier to be constructed on foundations that extend to the bedrock 94 feet (28.7 m) below the river bed. To achieve this caissonCaisson (engineering)
In geotechnical engineering, a caisson is a retaining, watertight structure used, for example, to work on the foundations of a bridge pier, for the construction of a concrete dam, or for the repair of ships. These are constructed such that the water can be pumped out, keeping the working...
s were sunk to a depth of 29 feet (8.8 m) below the river bed and then 10 feet (3 m) diameter wells were sunk the remaining 65 feet (19.8 m). The substructure of the bridge was constructed by the Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Company
Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Company
Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Company is an American company providing construction services in dredging and land reclamation, currently the largest such provider in the United States. GLD&D operates primarily in the United States but conducts one-quarter of its business overseas...
.
Usage
The Chicago and North Western Railway originally planned for two bridges side-by-side that could carry four railroad tracks into the Wells Street Station. However, by the time that the first bridge opened on September 19, 1908 an alternative scheme was already underway that led to the closure of Wells Street Station and its replacement it with a new terminal on the west bank of the river. When the new station (now the Ogilvie Transportation CenterOgilvie Transportation Center
The Richard B. Ogilvie Transportation Center is a passenger terminal in downtown Chicago, Illinois, USA, serving the three commuter rail lines of Metra's Union Pacific District, which approach the terminal elevated above street level. It occupies the lower floors of the Citigroup Center...
) opened in 1911, Kinzie Street railroad bridge was left to handle freight traffic only. In 1930 Merchandise Mart was opened on the site of the old Wells Street Station. Merchandise Mart was built on air rights
Air rights
Air rights are a type of development right in real estate, referring to the empty space above a property. Generally speaking, owning or renting land or a building gives one the right to use and develop the air rights....
of the Chicago and North Western, and in the spring of 1932 the railroad opened a new freight house underneath the building that was designed to handle 1000 short tons (907,184.7 kg) of outbound and 600 short tons (544,310.8 kg) of inbound freight per day.
Abandonment
During the second half of the 20th century the number of companies using the railroad for shipping on Chicago's near north side declined severely. In the 1970s customers at the east end of the line included the Curtiss candy factory and the Jardine Water Purification PlantJardine Water Purification Plant
The Jardine Water Purification Plant, formerly the Central District Filtration Plant, is the largest capacity water filtration plant in the world, located at 1000 E. Ohio Street north of Navy Pier in Chicago, Illinois...
. The construction of the Columbus Drive Bridge in 1982 wiped out part of the right of way and the spur to Navy Pier was abandoned. Service to the Tribune Tower
Tribune Tower
The Tribune Tower is a neo-Gothic building located at 435 North Michigan Avenue in Chicago, Illinois. It is the home of the Chicago Tribune and Tribune Company. WGN Radio also broadcasts from the building, with ground-level studios overlooking nearby Pioneer Court and Michigan Avenue. CNN's...
also ended in the 1980s, and by the 1990s traffic along the remaining section of the spur served only one customer, the Chicago Sun-Times, with only one train per day. The newspaper moved their printing plant out of downtown Chicago in early 2001 leaving no traffic across the bridge and it has since been permanently raised in the open position. On December 12, 2007 the bridge was one of 12 historic Chicago railroad bridges to be designated as Chicago Landmarks.
Proposals for reuse
Tests were conducted in 1953 to see if the spur could be used as a part of a commuter line with stops at Merchandise Mart, State Street, and Michigan Avenue, but the plan was dropped in 1954 for financial reasons. In the 1970s architect Harry WeeseHarry Weese
Harry Mohr Weese was an American architect, born in Evanston, Illinois in the Chicago suburbs, who had an important role in 20th century modernism and historic preservation...
suggested a light rail line along the spur to connect Chicago's downtown stations with the River North neighborhoods.
In 2008 the CIty of Chicago Department of Transportation commissioned an alternatives analysis to look at a proposal to create a transit link from Union Station and the Ogilvie Transportation Center to Michigan Avenue using the Union Pacific train tunnel running under the Apparel Center, the Merchandise Mart and other buildings east toward North Michigan Avenue. The proposed Carroll Avenue Transitway would include the retrofitting of Kinzie Street railroad bridge to carry buses or trams.