Column and Chains

At one time, the New York Central, Pennsylvania, and Erie railroads all ran mostly parallel with each-other from their respective Chicago terminals (LaSalle St., Union, and Dearborn Stations) and southeast from the city center along an elevated line towards Indiana. Near 95th St. they crossed the Calumet River using a double-track Strauss overhead-trunnion bascule bridge and three double-track lifting bridges. (This was the background for one of the posters for The Blues Brothers [1980], seen here. The Erie line has been almost entirely abandoned through most of Indiana and Illinois, and its bascule bridge at this site has been mostly scrapped, leaving only the counterweight, upper pivot, rocker arms, and approach spans. Two of the remaining lift bridges are out of service and are kept in the raised position. The remaining lift bridge (the westernmost) is still in service, now owned by Norfolk Southern. It is still movable, as the Calumet sees frequent barge traffic as well as ore freighters.

Here, we see the tower colums of one of the out-of-service bridges. The chains are a safety feature, as the counterweights block the tracks when lowered. However, running a train into a garage-sized concrete block is almost as bad as running it into the river, and the chains are meant to absorb some of the crash energy. The builder's plate is also visible. It reads:

WADDEL & HARRINGTON LIFT BRIDGE
Pateneted in U.S.A., Aug 24, 1909
May 20, 1910; May 29, 1910; May 31, 1910
OTHER PATENTS PENDING
Patented in Canada February 1, 1910; Oct 6, 1910
BUILT BY
THE PENNSYLVANIA STEEL CO.
STEELTON, PA.
1912

Camera: Canon AE-1 Program (35mm SLR)
Lens: Canon FD f1.8/50mm
Film: Kodak Ektachrome (ASA 200)
Exposure: 1/1000 @ f2.8+1/2
Date: 23 July 2006
Negative #SV62-32
Cropped, spotted, framed, and captioned using Adobe PhotoShop &