The Chicago Harbor Lighthouse (1893) stands as a symbol of the city’s rise as the principal commercial gateway between the Great Lakes and the American interior. More than a navigational aid, the lighthouse helped facilitate the maritime commerce, transportation networks, and industrial expansion that transformed Chicago into the economic capital of the Midwest.
Constructed in 1893, the year of the World’s Columbian Exposition, during a period of extraordinary growth for Chicago.
Known as the “Chicago Light,” the Chicago Harbor Lighthouse is an active automated lighthouse dating from 1893.
About one-half mile beyond Navy Pier, the lighthouse stands at the north of the main entrance of the Chicago Harbor in Lake Michigan. The lighthouse has had a significant role in the development of Chicago and the American Midwest and remains an active aid to nautical navigation today.
For more than a century, the U.S. Coast Guard has staffed this lighthouse at the breakwater outside the Chicago Harbor Lock. The lock separates Lake Michigan from the mouth of the Chicago River.
Guided ships on Lake Michigansafely into Chicago Harbor built in 1880, supporting both commercial shipping and passenger traffic.
The lock was built in the mid-1930’s and is operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The lock is one of the entrances into the Illinois Waterway system at the Great Lakes. The waterway system is a commercial and recreational shipping connection to the Gulf of Mexico by way of the Illinois and Mississippi rivers.
The “Chicago Light” is at that waterway system’s headwaters as it stands in the outer harbor constructed in 1880. The Chicago Light’s conical tower dates from 1893. Twenty-five years later, in 1918, the tower was reconstructed and the base building which contains a fog-signal room and boathouse was added. The architects are not identified.
Through its breakwaters, the main entrance into Chicago Harbor is 580 feet wide. The Chicago Harbor Lighthouse was designated a Chicago Landmark on April 9, 2003. It is the only surviving lighthouse in Chicago and one of two remaining examples in the state of Illinois.
What a view from the frozen waters of Lake Michigan! CBS 2 photojournalist Alfredo Roman shot this drone video of the Chicago Harbor Lighthouse, which has endured a lot of icy weather since it was built.
About one mile ahead from this photograph’s location is the Chicago Harbor Lock. Built in the 1930’s, it provides the entrance/exit to the Illinois Waterway system at the Great Lakes. The waterway system is a commercial and recreational shipping connection from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico by way of the Illinois and Mississippi rivers.
As a historic landmark, the Chicago Light represents the often-overlooked maritime foundations of Chicago’s wealth and development as it continues to serve as an active aid to navigation today.
FEATURE image: Portion of the open-grate pony-truss bascule Chicago Avenue Bridge and concrete house, erected in 1914, as it was in its last years of operation. Pointing to increased high traffic volume and load-bearing capacity issues, the 104-year-old bridge was demolished and replaced in 2018. Author’s photograph taken in May 2016.
The Chicago Avenue Bridge (1914) embodied the engineering ambition and industrial confidence of early twentieth-century Chicago. As a functional open-grate pony truss bascule bridge spanning the Chicago River, it reflected the city’s commitment to commerce, transportation, and technological innovation. Its demolition in 2018 marked not only the loss of a working piece of infrastructure but also the disappearance of a tangible artifact from Chicago’s era of rapid urban and industrial growth.
The expanse of the Chicago Avenue Bridge over the North Branch of the Chicago River near Goose Island. The steel beam pony trussbridge was built in 1914 and demolished in 2018. It was replaced by a temporary crossing in 2019. PHOTO: “Chicago Avenue Bridge” by swanksalot is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Built in 1914, the bridge was part of Chicago’s extensive system of movable river bridges that enabled both street traffic and river navigation. Designed by the engineering firm Ketler-Elliot, it represented the practical and elegant bridge engineering of the City Beautiful and Progressive Era.
Built in 1914 by Ketler-Elliot Erection Company of Chicago, the original Chicago Avenue Bridge was one of the oldest pony truss bascule bridges in Chicago. Connecting River North and River West, the steel bridge was, after 104 years, demolished in November 2018 and replaced five months later, in 2019, by a temporary fixed bridge. Since this portion of the river is now used mostly for recreational purposes, a new, permanent immovable concrete bridge was expected to open over the Chicago River in this location starting in 2021, delayed by the pandemic, and that will not be a bascule bridge.
Looking west along the old Chicago Avenue Bridge. The pony (steel) truss bridge allows for road and river traffic over and through the truss, but with no cross brace across the top connecting its two sides. PHOTO: “Looking west on Chicago Avenue bridge” by Steven Vance is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
The open-grate roadway and pony truss bascule design were characteristic solutions for heavily trafficked urban waterways. The bridge served as a critical link between the Near North Side and the Near West Side for more than a century.
A pony truss bridge is a steel truss bridge that allows traffic over and through the truss, but with no cross brace across the top connecting its two sides. The truss bridge assembly of the Chicago Avenue Bridge was made of riveted steel beams—and a witness to Chicago’s early 20th century industrial manufacturing might.
As well as being “Hog Butcher For The World, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and the Nation’s Freight Handler” as Carl Sandberg wrote in his 1914 poem, Chicago, published in the new (1912) Poetry magazine, Chicago was also at that time a world leader in steel production and bridge design.
Looking east at the new Chicago Avenue Bridge in November 1914. Public Domain.
The basic design of any bascule bridge is similar to a medieval castle drawbridge. A leaf or span rises and descends that permits traffic upon it and— for the Chicago Avenue Bridge— also traffic below it on the Chicago River.
Chicago boasts more than 50 movable bridges. Single-leaf (truss) bascule bridges were constructed where the river was not very wide and a single bridge deck goes up and down between abutments. This was often used for train traffic which was convenient since Chicago was and still remains the railroad capital of the United States.
The more common double-leaf (truss) bascule bridge— including the Chicago Avenue Bridge—consists of two leaves or spans which meet in the middle over the river. Counterweights on each side of the bridge beneath it in a river pit (or pits) balances, stabilizes and fortifies the vertical movement of the bridge deck.
If the bridge deck is single leaf, the “Chicago Style” bridge rises in a piece vertically to one side of the river. If the bridge deck is two leaves, each rise to their side of the river and descend to close again by meeting in the middle of the bridge deck.
Its steel construction and mechanical movable span illustrated Chicago’s emergence as a world leader in infrastructure and civil engineering. The structure was closely tied to the industrial, commercial, and maritime history of the Chicago River.
Bascule bridges are the most commonly found moveable bridges in the world because they operate quickly and efficiently. The Chicago Avenue Bridge was operated from a companion pitched-roof bridge house with rounded corners and rows of windows clad in decorative (today oxidized green) copper. The foundational portions of the bridge house were constructed of concrete. Upper portions were made of wood with roofing of vitrified tile. So far, the bridge house portion of the structure has not been demolished.
In 1914, the new Chicago Avenue Bridge across a jag of Chicago River abutting the national headquarters of Montgomery Ward whose complex was first built in 1907, made for a sleek, powerful, modern and elegant statement about industry and urban commerce in early 20th century Middle America.
Historic photographs of the bridge provide a record of a Chicago that was simultaneously industrial, architectural, and intensely urban.
When the Chicago Avenue Bridge opened in 1914, Chicago was the world leader in steel production and bridge design. Chicago Mayor Carter H. Harrison, Jr. (1860-1953) whose name appears on the dedication plaque was a five-term Democrat incumbent from 1897 to 1905 and from 1911 to 1915. PHOTO:“Carter H Harrison Mayor marker – Chicago Avenue Bridge” by swanksalot is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
There are numerous variations and designs of the bascule bridge which in Chicago includes the trunnion (“pivot point”) bascule (“seesaw”) bridge. The nation’s first such bridge started operation in Chicago in 1902 over the north branch of the Chicago River at Cortland Street which can still be seen in operation today. The bridge design became known as the “Chicago Style” as its leaf or leaves, suspended on axles (trunnions) with massive concrete counterweights located below the bridge in the riverbank pit, opens and lifts a single or dual bridge deck to clear the river for traffic without blocking the waterway with a central pier.
Chicago’s bascule bridges—and the Chicago Avenue Bridge was one of them—were designed to its specific location. Each was designed to take on heavy loads and the attendant vibration which included the ice and snow pack of Chicago’s typically harsh winters. The design and construction into bedrock took into account wind resistance, whether the bridge leaves were open or closed, and to wind speeds of 100 miles per hour in any and all directions.
By 1920, improvements in bascule bridge design allowed for the construction of a double deck trunnion bascule bridge where car, truck and foot traffic could be carried simultaneously on its upper and lower decks. The first such double deck trunnion bascule bridge in Chicago was near the site of the old Fort Dearborn on the Chicago River at Michigan Avenue—today’s busy DuSable Bridge, formerly Michigan Avenue Bridge which opened in May 1920.
The Chicago Avenue Bridge is also significant as it belonged to a set of Chicago city bridges built between 1910 and 1915 whose designs looked to go beyond their utilitarian function to incorporate artistic and other aesthetic elements. Beginning with the Chicago Avenue Bridge in 1913, the Chicago Planning Commission worked with the city’s Bridge Division at the bascule bridge’s design stage.
Engineer’s blueprint of the Chicago Avenue Bridge, 1914. Public Domain. The blueprint shows the technical plans and cross-sections for the historical bascule drawbridge over the Chicago River at West Chicago Avenue. The detailed architectural drawings outline:
The Top-Down Site Plan (Top): Shows the layout of the river channel, streetcar rails, sidewalks, and neighboring historic properties (like the Montgomery Ward Co. Building, Merchants Lighterage Co., and City Yards).
The Structural Cross-Section (Middle): Details the bridge’s lane width, clearance dimensions, trolley wires, and structural framing.
The Profile Elevation (Bottom): Illustrates the trunnion mechanics, bridge towers, operators’ houses, underwater riverbed depth, and the underground utility tunnels beneath the city datum line.
Demolition in 2018 reflected the ongoing tension between infrastructure modernization and historic preservation.
Following the demolition of the Chicago Avenue Bridge in 2018, an immoveable temporary steel girder bridge was installed in 2019 over this span of the Chicago River. For the moment, bridge design has returned to utilitarian functionality alone with little or no artistic or aesthetic program which had been one of the progressive features of the Chicago Avenue Bridge over a century ago.
Library of Congress. “Chicago Avenue Bascule Bridge, Spanning North Branch of Chicago River at Chicago Avenue, Chicago, Cook County, IL.” Historic American Engineering Record, HAER IL-23. https://loc.gov/pictures/item/IL0823/.
