Lake Street Bridge

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Found in Tour: Along the South Branch of the River
Landmark Images:
Lake Street Bridge; Louis Kurz for Jevne & Almini, Lithograph, 1866-67 (ichi-64269)

Lake Street Bridge; Louis Kurz for Jevne & Almini, Lithograph, 1866-67 (ichi-64269)

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.

"West Side from Lake St. Bridge Chicago"; Alfred R. Waud, Pencil and Chalk Drawing, 1871 (ichi-02979)

"West Side from Lake St. Bridge Chicago"; Alfred R. Waud, Pencil and Chalk Drawing, 1871 (ichi-02979)

The Lake Street Bridge was one of the few downtown bridges to escape the fire, as did the section of the West Division where the bridge was located.  As a result, this post-fire drawing by artist and illustrator Waud shows none of the destruction he recorded in many of his other depictions of the city during and right after the fire. 

Since its river bridges were so critical to Chicago life, by early February of 1872 the city had contracted to build nine new ones—at Clark, Van Buren, Halsted, Rush, Polk, Adams, State, and Wells streets, as well as at Chicago Avenue—and eight of these were completed or substantially completed between January and June.  While a few contained wood, several were now constructed of iron and stone.

For more of Waud's work, see "The Waud Drawings" gallery in "The Eyewitnesses" section.