This is sometimes called the S-drive.
It was straightened between 1982-86 when the Columbia Drive Bridge was built. [Kevin R Doerksen comment on a post]
The Chicago River harbor when schooners sailed the lakes
Mircea's comment:
I don't know where Dime Pier is, but I do know that those 90-degree turns in the Lake Shore Drive to connect to the bridge were called the S-Curve. I remember going around those turns. You are cruising along at a good speed down the Lake Shore Drive and then you have to come to an almost complete stop to make those turns. Fortunately, I never drove it when it was slippery from snow or rain. There was a high center divider to keep the wrecks on one side of the road. From a Jon Oye posting of this picture, I learned that this was "Taken from the Prudential Building in 1963 by Charles Cushman."
This appears to be a popular view.
Today the old LSD route and all of those Illinois Central freight handling buildings and tracks have been replaced by more skyscrapers and the Maggie Daley and Peanut Parks.
A better exposure:
The History of Chicago's Famous Lake Shore Drive. (source) It has a rather complete history of the LSD from Potter Palmer's ego trip in 1882, to the reversible lanes, the bridge and S-Curve, the improved S-Curve, and the extension south across the land of the former US Steel's South Works.
Now when they talk about "the S-curve," they mean the bends at the south end of the Gold Coast. Also 20170712 and photo gallery.
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| Mircea Damian -> Forgotten Chicago Eddie Yung also posted |
With Jardine water filteration plant, Navy Pier,Dime Pier and US Coast Guard Station (now Police Marine Unit).Bob Lalich The white buildings along Ogden Slip were known as North Pier Terminal.
I don't know where Dime Pier is, but I do know that those 90-degree turns in the Lake Shore Drive to connect to the bridge were called the S-Curve. I remember going around those turns. You are cruising along at a good speed down the Lake Shore Drive and then you have to come to an almost complete stop to make those turns. Fortunately, I never drove it when it was slippery from snow or rain. There was a high center divider to keep the wrecks on one side of the road. From a Jon Oye posting of this picture, I learned that this was "Taken from the Prudential Building in 1963 by Charles Cushman."
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| Patrick McBriarty posted Postcard of LSD and Navy Pier not in 1990 — before 1986 when the S-curve was removed. (Thanks to history folks who corrected me) Courtesy of Jeff Baker. Jeff Bransky  The S curve reconfiguration took place between 1982 and 1986.Jeff Bransky Navy Pier was still in the old configuration when the photo was taken (two long warehouses which were later removed). There was a ramp leading to the second story in front where streetcars once entered the courtyard. The big field house that was used by the Navy and the University of Illinois was still in the front yard.David Zornig Completed in late `86. https://www.chicagotribune.com/.../ct-xpm-1986-11-14... Rene P Maldonado The old “S” curve Lake Shore Drive |
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| Coast at Lakeshore East posted FBF: Year 1958 – The Prudential building used to be the tallest building in Chicago and had an observatory that was a tourist attraction. You can also see Illinois Central Railroad classification yards. The rail yard is now our beautiful 6 acre park. https://chicagopast.com/ Diane Primozic: The old S curve on Lake Shore Drive was classic Chicago driving. Paul Webb shared |
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| Eric J. Nordstrom posted original 8 x 10 aerial photographic image (dated may 16th, 1963) of downtown chicago looking northwest with "s-curve" in foreground. courtesy of bldg. 51 archive. [This is also a good view of the Ogden Slip.] |
Eric J. Norstrom posted two photos with the comment:
two original 1937 photographic images of outer drive bridge under construction.likely taken by the chicago aerial survery company, chicago, il.courtesy of bldg. 51 archive.
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| Debbie Sekowski Koenig commented on Rene's post I remember that well. Here is an aerial shot of the revamped curve. The red line shows the original route. Mike Joyce posted Here's a neat photo showing LSD with the S-curve gone. The red line shows the path of the drive before it was fixed. |
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| safe_image for Flickr Photo "I'm guessing this was taken from the Prudential Building, which is inline with this view and once had the highest roof in Chicago. This image must be from pre-1963 based on the state of construction at the Jardine Water Purification Plant north of Navy Pier compared to the plant in this similar 1963 photograph." |
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| Historic Chicago posted |
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| Dan Crespo posted Lake Shore Drive "S Curve" with the new re-route still being constructed. 1987. Susan Herin Hecht posted |
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| Satellite |
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| Tom Palka commented on Dan's posting This shows before & after |
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| Historic Chicago posted Aerial view of Chicago. (1956) |
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| Dennis DeBruler shared (source) One of IC's grain elevators was still standing in 1937. The Lake Shore Drive is being built. President Roosevelt dedicated the Lake Shore Drive Bridge on October 5, 1937. "A Public Works Administration allotment of $1,972,363 made possible the construction of this project." |
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| Dan Imal posted The real S turn on LSD, 1967. |
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| Mike Tuggle posted Opening of the Outer Drive Bridge on October 5, 1937. Scott L. Duignan President Roosevelt attended the opening. Lower deck was for trains. Never used for that purpose. [From another posting.] Patricia Armell See the bridgehouses on Lake Shore Dr at the right edge of the photo? There was an operable single leaf bridge over Ogden Slip to allow ships to get to the docks. This operable bridge was replaced with a fixed bridge when the S curve was removed in the early 1980s. |
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| Mike Tuggle posted Infamous S curve on Lake Shore Drive, just south of the bridge on December 24, 1937. Jim Kutill Looks like construction of the locks was starting. Jay Cody also posted Lake shore drive, 1937. Ronald Freeman Interesting...I notice they are building the lock system, in the background |
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| The old Lake Shore Drive S curve in the 1960s. [Flickr Creative Commons/Chester Kropidlowski] from DNAinfo [Note that there are still a few boxcars under the Lake Shore Drive. But all of the industrial buildings along the south side of the river are gone. I still need to determine what facility had those two smoke stacks. The north one is operating.] |
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| MWRD shared RIVER MOUTH AND OLD OUTTER DRIVE S-CURVE – AERIAL – BLUE CROSS – LOTS OF EMPTY RAIL LAND – c1950 |
A better exposure:
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| Paul Jevert shared a post by Chuck Slayton from the top of the Wrigley Building 1950 Paul Jevert shared again I.C. So Water St. Freight terminal and Michigan Central limestone freight house (1950) |
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| Chicago History posted [The white piles were made by a self-unloader from a boat on the Chicago River.] |
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John Tkalec posted
1929, this area south of the Chicago River has been completely retransformed and looks nothing like this today.
[A "before" view.] |
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| Sharon Avendano shared Ivan Toledo What was under it? Johnny Conlisk Those were freight yards of the Illinois Central railroad's northern terminus (The southern end was in New Orleans). All the land you see was formerly Lake Michigan The natural shoreline of the lake is several hundred yards west The IC filled in thousands of acres of lake bottom. The road is shaped that way due to the presence of the tracks below. The support columns had to be placed in between the tracks The railroad had absolute control over where the roadway went. It was always a traffic nightmare. Damian Warshall Water. City tow pounds [Note the two ships docked at Navy Pier.] |
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| David M Laz posted Aerial of steel frame of Prudential skyscraper, steel workers gathered on top level for ceremony marking end of their work. 1954 Ed Bara The picture captures a lot, naval armory, IC rail yard, s-curve. Taylor C. Martin We are called Ironworkers. Steel workers work in the mills. Local 1 proud. Ed Bara If you look closely, on the north side of the naval armory is the submarine, U.S.S.Silversides. Joseph P Mulligan https://www.dnainfo.com/.../remember-old-lake-shore-drive... Bob Thune You might want to be careful. Getty images are highly copyrighted and very expensive. In fact, this is why Google has completely reworked their image search engine which now (unlike before) directs you to the web page using that image. That takes Google off the legal hook. The copyrighted image companies (such as Getty) threatened to sue them and that got their attention. DuckDuckGo has not bowed down to that legal pressure.... yet. Of course Google could agree to pay a license fee but so far has refused to do that. David M Laz Not to worry. Getty Images now available free for non-commercial use! March 24, 2014 story by Jessica McCullough in the website Engage. Bob Thune David M Laz I found that article. Thanks. From Jessica later. "Hi Lee, Thank you. I updated the link. It is a little unclear that the images are available free of charge. If the image has the embed symbol (two angled brackets) the image can be used freely. If it does not include that symbol, you do have to pay for it. Thanks, - Jessica" According to that 2014 article 32,000 of their 80,000 images at the time could be shared. BTW - I only brought this up because a year of so ago, Google stopped allowing direct access to images at full resolution. Bummer ! I now use DuckDuckGo at the recommendation of others. it's much better. [This had the tallest roof in Chicago when it was built. The Statue of Ceres on the Board of Trade was four feet higher. And antennas don't count.] |
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| Chicago Tribune [Just 33 years old and two beams have already cracked. I wonder if this steel was made in China. But Chicago's choice of the contractor is probably to blame for all of the exposed rebar in the pier and the lampost support. Unlike some coaling towers we have seen, Chicago area contractors doin't build things to last. The Cline Avenue Bridge was the first example I encountered.] |
Now when they talk about "the S-curve," they mean the bends at the south end of the Gold Coast. Also 20170712 and photo gallery.
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| (This photo was supposed to be near the top. But a Google bug put it here. Instead of wasting my time working around a bug that I reported weeks ago, I leave the photo here as a monument to Google's bug.) MWRD posted Today's photo shows construction of the Chicago River Controlling Works and Lock as well as an early view of the Chicago skyline from Lake Michigan on November 16, 1936. |
There's an urban legend that designer of infamous S-curve committed suicide BUT I find no proof of it.
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