| Address | San & Ship Canal, S of 31st & W of Western Av |
|---|---|
| Built | 1901 (original fixed bridges); 1909-1910 (converted to movable "Eight-Track" bridge) |
| Architect | Scherzer Rolling Lift Bridge Company |
| Status | Designated Chicago Landmark |
| Designation Date | December 12, 2007 (Final)City Council Journal of the Proceedings, p. 17256 |
| Neighborhood | South Lawndale |
| Type | Bridge |
| Landmark ID | L-244 |
Direct quotes from the Chicago Landmark Designation Report
“The Historic Chicago Railroad Bridges represent several important patented types of moveable bridges and demonstrate the innovative bridge designs developed in the Chicago in the 1890s. The Historic Chicago Railroad Bridges include several early movable bridges that are rare-surviving examples of the first of two types of significant bascule bridges to be erected in Chicago.”
“Since the first railroad tracks were laid in 1848, Chicago gained the reputation as a commercial giant credited with fueling westward expansion via the rails. Quickly the city became the nation's railroad hub with a vast network of tracks responsible for transporting goods and passengers throughout the United States.”
“These structures show the innovations in and evolution of bridge technology and design that thrust Chicago into the forefront of the field of moveable bridge design on both a national and international scale.”
“The Historic Chicago Railroad Bridges exemplify early innovative bridge designs created by prominent designers and demonstrate the evolution of moveable bridge design in Chicago that would ultimately establish the city as the leader in the field of bascule bridge design in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.”
“An ensemble of rare-surviving early bascule bridge designs are situated along the North and South Branches of the Chicago River and the Canal. With names that are almost as unique as their designs, these innovative bascule bridges include: a “bob-tail" swing bridge on the Near North Side, two excellent early “Strausstype" bridges in the North Loop and the Near South Side, a “Page”-designed bridge in Bridgeport, a “Rall” roller bascule in South Lawndale, and the visually striking “Eight-Track” bascule bridge spanning the canal on the Lower West Side.”
“On a daily basis fifty-eight passenger trains and thirty-eight freight trains rolled into the city everyday. By 1857, over 3,000 miles of railroad track led to Chicago, making it the center of the largest railway network in the world at that time.”
“This early movable bridge was the first of two types of bascule bridges to be erected in Chicago, and it was an important predecessor to the “Chicago-type" trunnion bascule bridges that today are a familiar sight along the Chicago River and around the world.”
“Their collaboration resulted in some of the most acclaimed vertical-lift bridge designs nationally and internationally. Waddell and Harrington's vertical-lift bridges quickly became national renown as popular alternatives to the designs then available to railroads.”
“The steam engine Pioneer made its first trip down the G&CU's eight-mile-long-track in 1848. On its return trip, the engine hauled a load of grain back into the city.”
“At the close of the nineteenth century and early in the first decades of the twentieth century, major feats of civil engineering, including the reversal of the flow of the Chicago River and the straightening of the river, greatly underscored the importance of railroad bridges to the city's interconnected river and rail network.”