CN/IC and Kedzie Ave. Bridges over Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal

IC Bridge: (Historic Bridges, Bridge Hunter, Satellite)
Kedzie Avenue: (Historic Bridges, Bridge Hunter, Satellite)

Joe Balynas Flickr (CS&SC Album)

Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago made this their cover photo
Skaters on ice in the bottom of a nearly completed Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal west of Kedzie Avenue on December 30, 1899. The Kedzie Avenue bridge is in the background and behind it is the bridge for the Chicago, Madison, and Northern Railroad.
Mark Bilecki Sr. The Kedzie bridge was replaced in 1972
 [That would be the road bridge. The railroad bridge still exists.]

MWRD posted
A view to the northeast from Kedzie Avenue showing the nearly complete Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal and the Chicago, Madison and Northern Railroad bridge on December 30, 1899.

Mark Bilecki Sr.: That bridge is the old IC bridge now CN

Dennis DeBruler: Mark Bilecki Sr. IC did not by the CM&N until 1903.

A view to the west of the IC bridge.

MWRD posted
 A western view of a partially sunken boat in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal near California Avenue on August 15, 1917.
[The IC bridge is in the left background with the Kedzie bridge behind it.]

 

william Lafferty commented on the above post
Charles Hinman built Sanilac at Algonac, Michigan, a 160-foot steam barge that, clearly, had a long commercial career on the lakes. In November 1912 federal steamboat inspectors at Chicago condemned the vessel as unseaworthy. The vessel languished on the South Branch until sold to the Albert Dickinson Seed Company of West 35th Street. While being cut down to a barge it caught fire on 12 February 1915 and declared a total loss, reduced to the state shown above. I assume the wreck was removed by the U. S. Engineering Department, or perhaps the Sanitary District, after this photograph was taken. Below is the Sanilac in more halcyon days albeit late in its career.

MWRD posted on Feb 23, 2023
A view to the west at the Kedzie Avenue bridge and the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal on August 22, 1899. The earth embankment in the canal was for a temporary railroad crossing during bridge construction.

MWRD posted on Dec 27, 2022
A view to the west towards Kedzie Avenue and the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal showing work on a new dock on December 17, 1914.
MWRD posted

MWRD posted on Apr 30, 2022
 A view to the west towards Kedzie Avenue and the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal showing work on a new dock on March 1, 1915.
MWRD posted

 

MWRD posted on Oct 6, 2022
A view to the west towards Kedzie Avenue and the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal showing work on a new dock on March 1, 1915.

Glen Miller posted

The Illinois Central Railroad Swing Bridge located North of 35th St. between Pulaski and Lawndale Avenues was built in 1898 - 1900. It was designated a Chicago Landmark: December 12, 2007 

The swing bridge is one of only a few surviving swing-span railroad bridges in Chicago. The bridge, which dates from the late 19th century, was part of the system of fifteen bridges constructed by the Sanitary District of Chicago to cross the Sanitary and Ship Canal. 

Construction on the Canal began in 1892; at its completion in 1900, the 28-mile waterway effectively reversed the natural flow of the Chicago River from east to west. The bridge's span is set atop a central pier, which when fully opened, created a navigable channel on either side of the pier. The bridge rests on ashlar limestone abutments on the river embankments while its center pier is made of cast concrete and limestone. 

It was originally built for the short-line Illinois Northern Railroad, which was part of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe. The bridge's operating machinery was removed and its span is closed and locked in a fixed position. The bridge, a Chicago landmark, is still used for rail traffic. Modern barges operate within the fixed vertical clearance of the bridge since it can no longer be opened.

Joseph Obrien shared

Dennis DeBruler commented on Glen's post and Joseph's share
That was never the IC bridge. The CN/IC bridge is less than a mile east of this bridge, https://maps.app.goo.gl/s37ova8wK7KoEs3M8. And it is on a sharp angle across the canal, https://maps.app.goo.gl/vnUTycEk8MDrbRH6A.

1 of 3 photos posted by HalstEd Pazdzior
IC 1021 is right at home as it leads a grain train (G889) through Chicago.   4/18/22

Ramon Rhodes posted five pictures of the railroad bridge as comments:

1: Here's a shot of the Kedzie Ave bridge.

2: The Kedzie Ave highway bridge may have been replaced, but this railroad bridge is the original one built in the 1800's.

4

3

5: Contemporary shot.

Ramon Rhodes HISTORY: This and all the other railroad swing-type bridges along the canal from Lake Michigan to Joliet were all built WITHOUT motors to actually move the bridges. Note there is no operators shack on the span too. They had to be opened and closed manually using winches, cables, and tractors. From the time they were completed to this day, they have only been opened a dozen times, with most of those openings happening during WW2 when a shipyard that built Navy minesweepers along the canal needed to get their boats to the Mississippi River.
Mark Bilecki Sr. My father told me they would send submarines built in Manitowac Wis. down the canal to the Mississippi river.

Ramon's comment reminds me that the St. Lawrence Seaway was not opened until 1959.

Nathan Mackey posted
CN train 337 over the Chicago Sanitary & Ship Canal. 1/27/19

Dennis DeBruler commented on Nathan's post
A train with a couple of DPUs on Apr 16, 2016.
Mark Simmons Thats the CN's Freeport Sub.
Dennis DeBruler What is the timetable direction on that sub? I heard that CN was a north/south railroad, but that is an east/west route.
Mark Simmons East/West.
Mark Simmons The Waukesha and Chicago Subs. are North/South.
[My pictures of an eastbound train that came by when I was almost got back to my parked car.]

Forgotten Railways, Roads & Places posted

Here we have a SOO Line train passing through a steel girder bridge in 1993. The slide is labeled "IC Bridge" with no other identifying features. Anyone know the location here?

Photo: Our collection, original photographer Otto P. Dobnick.

Edit: The hive has spoken and appears to agree on it being the Swing bridge over the Sanitary and Ship Canal, east of Kedzie Av in Chicago, IL. Thank you all!

MWRD posted
A western view of a partially sunken boat in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal near California Ave on August 15, 1917.

Dennis DeBruler commented on MWRD's post
The CN/IC bridge is in the background.
The building is probably one of these buildings that were along the collateral channel in this 1938 aerial photo. Note that part of the original South Branch still existed.
https://clearinghouse.isgs.illinois.edu/webdocs/ilhap/county/data/cook/flight12/0bwq08060.jpg

MWRD posted
Equipment and workers near the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal during an electrical conduit tunneling project, looking to the east with the Kedzie Ave Bridge in the background, May 28, 1923.
Dennis DeBruler It is interesting that they were using steam power as late as 1923. It could not be easy transporting that boiler.
MWRD posted on Jul 15, 2022

Jonathan Konopka posted
This is the Illinois Central Sanitary and Ship Canal Bridge in Chicago, IL.  It is a swing bridge that was built in 1899 and carries a former Illinois Northern railroad line over the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal.  The rail line over the bridge is abandoned and no longer used, and the bridge is locked in the closed position.  Photo and information are courtesy of HistoricBridges.org.

 

MWRD posted on Dec 13, 2022
Equipment and workers near the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal during an electrical conduit tunneling project, looking to the east with the Kedzie Avenue bridge in the background, on May 28, 1923.

Edward posted a 1989 photo.

The second picture of the Illinois Northern Bridge post (20160416 2149) is of this bridge. Both pictures were taken from Kedzie Avenue Bridge with a morning sun. (I got out of bed way before before Noon on a day with a blue sky to take a picture of the Illinois Northern Bridge with the sun at my back. But the ICwest bridge picture with the sun in front of me turned out better.)