Who are those other guys and what did they do?Who are those other guys and what did they do?

A look at Chicago bridge engineers at the turn of the 20A look at Chicago bridge engineers at the turn of the 20

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CenturyCentury

byby James S. Phillips James S. Phillips

Introduction

July 4, 2009 marked the centennial of The Plan of Chicago authored by Daniel H.Burnham and Edward H. Bennett. The focus of

The Plan

was to create a city that wouldachieve two major goals - provide an efficient environment for commerce and a beautiful environment that would add to the quality of life for city residents.Burnham and Bennett received many accolades for their vision of Chicago. Inaddition, Edward Bennett was the architectural consultant for the Chicago PlanCommission which meant that he had a great deal of influence on the major projects built in the city between 1909 and 1930, including the bascule bridges in the Loop.

Mr.Bennett's name appears on plaques of eleven bridges built in this era (W. Washington,W. Jackson, W. Lake, W. Monroe, N. Michigan, N. Franklin-Orleans, N. Wells, W.Madison, W. Adams, N La Salle, and N. Wabash – see Illustration 1).Mr. Bennett was instrumental in ensuring that the bridges were beautiful. Whilethere were some architectural considerations in the bridge components themselves, mostof the architectural attention was focused on the bridge tender houses, abutments,staircases, and railings.While Mr. Bennett had a major role in defining the appearance of the bridges, he didnot “design” these bridges. Other names appear on the bridge plaques. “Who are thoseother guys and what did they do?”

1The bridges of interest here are located on the Main and South Branches of the Chicago River between N. Lake ShoreDr. and W. Van Buren St. Illustration 1 shows the area and the location of the bridges.

Some History

To answer that question, we need to look back at the 1890's, when all of Chicago'smovable bridges were center pier swing bridges. This type of bridge has a turntable on a pier in the middle of the river (Illustration 2). Commercial vessels had grown largeenough that these center piers were a hindrance to navigation especially in the relatively“tight” turn from the Main Branch to the South Branch (see Illustration 1). The need for more room in the river channel made the shipping and marine interests push Chicagoand its engineers to develop a more navigation-friendly bridge.

Illustration 1: Location of Downtown Chicago Bridges (bridges marked with double asterisk were built between1913 and 1930)

12 345 6 7 8 910 1112 131415 16 17 18

1. N Lake Shore Dr 2. N Columbus Dr

3. N Michigan Ave** 4. N Wabash Ave**

5. N State St 6. N Dearborn St

7. N Clark St** 8. N LaSalle St** 9. N Wells St** 10. N Franklin-Orleans St** 11. W Lake St**

12. W Randolph St

13. W Washington Blvd** 14. W Madison St** 15. W Monroe St** 16. W Adams St** 17. W Jackson Blvd**

18. W Van Buren St

Three prototype bridge designs emerged that met the goal of adequate channel width but with varying degrees of success meeting the operational criteria. These were thefolding-lift bridge, the vertical lift span, and the rolling lift bascule bridge. Each of thesedesigns was patented by their respective designers: the folding-lift by Captain WilliamHarman; the vertical lift span by J. A. L. Waddell; and the rolling lift bascule by Williamand Albert Scherzer.

Illustration 2: Lithograph in James W. Sheahan, Chicago Illustrated (Chicago: Jevne & Almini, 1866). P&P,LC-USZ62-23805. (Library of Congress Digital image provided in BRIDGES by Richard Cleary, copyright 2007, W.W. Norton & Company.)