Thursday, August 18, 2016

Wells Street Bridges

Satellite
(Bridge Hunter, HistoricBridges, Chicago Loop Bridges, John Marvig) See Historic Bridges for a description of the 2011-12 rehabilitation. They built new trusses that preserved the historic look and floated them in place to minimize the downtime of the "L." Note the links to videos.

Veronica Drake posted a postcard of Wells Street Bridge and the photo that was probably tinted to make the postcard. I'll have to research which C&NW station is in the background.

Veronica Drake -> Forgotten Chicago
Veronica Drake -> Forgotten Chicago
Comment on MWRD share
From the roof of 77 E.Wacker.
Update:
David M Laz posted
"L" crossing the Wells Street Bridge with Marina City standing alone as the biggest buildings on the North side of the Chicago River in the 60's. Note the TV broadcast antenna on top of Marina City since it was one of the biggest buildings in Chicago at the time!

Mike Tuggle posted
CTA 2400-series cars head north on the the Wells Street Bridge after leaving [actually, approaching] the Merchandise Mart in 1976.
Fred McCraw: My employer did the structural steel fabrication for Wells Street Bridge. All of the connection angle and lacing bars went through my CNC machine. Each end had a 1/4 inch fit tolerance at the float in. The Ironworkers said it fit like a glove. Twice they had 72 hours to fit each end. No problems. My employer received a letter of commendation. I’m proud of that structure.

Paul Webb shared

Marty Bernard posted
A Ravenswood CTA Train on the Wells Street Bridge, Chicago, 8/7/1982
Marty Bernard shared

ChicagoLoopBridges posted
The Wells Street bridge will mark 102 years on February 11th. Additional information can be found at: http://chicagoloopbridges.com/bridges12/MS12/WEL12-6.html 
(2016 photo shows a view of the gears from the sidewalk when the bridge is raised.)

Nick Gawriluk commented on a MWRD posting
Unknown location but this photo was taken on 7/14/21 by Carl Kehm.
Jeff Bransky The presence of the clock tower in the background looks like the Reid Murdock building on the north side of the main branch. That means we are looking east at the Wells Street Bridge. The current Wells Street Bridge was opened in 1922, eight years before the Merchandise Mart appeared in 1930. This is the eighth Wells Street Bridge. Also, the bridge house is the correct design for the Wells Street Bridge.
[
The new trunnion bridge is being built around the swing bridge that it will replace to minimize the disruption of traffic.]
David Daruszka posted
C&NW Wells Street Station (1881-1911). The Wells Street swing bridge with the station in the background.

Jeff Bransky posted two photos with the comment:
Chicago, early 1900s: Old Wells Street Bridge crossing the main branch of the Chicago River. Apparently captured from a newspaper clipping or other printed material. Image source: The Trolley Dodger. This steel swing bridge was the 7th Wells Street Bridge. The second image shows the 8th and current double decker Chicago Bascule bridge under construction on the cover of Methods Magazine. Northwestern Elevated RR and Chicago & North Shore Electric RR traffic would continue to use the old bridge during the new construction. The 8th bridge would open in September 1922. Image source: Chicagology.

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David Daruszka commented on Jeff's posting
Nice postcard image of the swing bridge.
Historic Chicago posted
Wells Street Bridge. C&NW Station tower in the background.
I wonder if they are watching the swimmers coming down the river in the annual swimming marathon that was done after the river was reversed to celebrate how clean the river was.


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