120:365 Progress . . .

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This is the Wells Street Bridge over the Chicago River. Chicago has about 18 moveable bridges, and this one was past its sell-by date, having been built in 1922 :-) It's an interesting one because it's a double decker, with cars and pedestrians on the lower level, and L trains on the upper. The full name of this style of bridge is: "Chicago Type, Fixed Trunnion, Double Leaf, Bascule Bridge."

It's been interesting to watch the construction.

The fortress-like building on the left is a corner of the Merchandise Mart. The construction has once again shut down all trains for a limited period of time. Coordinating the shuttle busses to get passengers off the line, across the river, and on to their destinations resembles a military operation. One of the shuttle stops is right in front of my office building, and there are hazard-jacketed CTA employees everywhere directing the flow of so many additional busses into and out of the Loop during rush hour every day.

Comments

EyeStamp said…
The town where I grew up, Ashtabula, OH, also has a bascule bridge which crosses the Ashtabula River. Very unusual type of bridge. (I found your blog via the Loopy Ewe where some of your beautiful handspun was pictured!) Looking up this type of bridge on Wikipedia, I found it was not as unusual as I thought, yet not all that common either! Ours was built in 1925 but was refurbished just a few years ago and is now lit with cool blue lights at night!

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