Lake Street Bridge

The view is from near the Randolph Street Bridge, looking northeast.  The Lake Street Bridge has always been the northernmost bridge on the South Branch of the Chicago River.  It is located just south of Wolf Point, where the Main Branch splits into the North and South branches.  From this same vantage point today, one has an excellent view of the Merchandise Mart, among many other buildings. 

This image affords a sense of the how busy the river was.  It also shows the kind of pivot upon which such bridges turned in order to allow vessels to pass.  The 185-foot Lake Street Bridge was constructed of wood and iron in 1868 by Fox & Howard, the leading contractor for such projects, at a cost of $26,700.  Since Lake Street was paved and graded from the lake front to Halsted Street, and since no streetcar lines used this bridge, it was a favorite east-west route for equestrians and horse-drawn vehicles.