Belmont Avenue used to be the northernmost movable bridge. The Grebe Boat Yard used to occupy the west bank between Roscoe and Belmont. The longest boats they made were part of their WWII production --- a 440' water tanker [ShipBuildingHistory, another article]
Tim Paske posted three pictures with the comment "Belmont Bridge circa 1902 looking west from Western , photo's 2-3 same place but taken in 1970. Bridge has been replaced since."
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| 1 MWRD posted a slightly lighter exposure A westward view of the Belmont Avenue Bridge at the North Branch of the Chicago River on October 14, 1903 Thomas E. Zimmerman And that church is still there I believe. However I think the steeple was taken down a few years ago after being damaged in a storm. Kody Thames Thomas E. Zimmerman That was my first thought too. https://www.chicagotribune.com/.../chi-church-steeple... MWRD posted |
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| 3 |
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| Streetview |
Bridge Hunter has a photo of the bridge in the raised position with the Grebe Boat Yard in the background.
Update:
Update:
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| MWRD posted The North Branch of the Chicago River, looking north from the west side of the Belmont Avenue bridge showing a shipyard and boats on October 8, 1925. [The Grebe Shipyard is along the left bank and ComEd's Northwestern Generating Station has the smokestacks in the background.] |
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| MWRD A westward view of the North Branch of the Chicago River near the Belmont Avenue bridge on February 19, 1925. MWRD posted again A westward view of the North Branch of the Chicago River and the Belmont Avenue bridge during work on a section of the North Side Intercepting Sewer on February 19, 1925. MWRD posted on Jun 10, 2023 A westward view of the North Branch of the Chicago River near the Belmont Avenue bridge on February 19, 1925. |
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| MWRD posted Boats docked on the North Branch of the Chicago River, looking east across the river from the west bank, just south of the Belmont Avenue Bridge on May 27, 1920. Riverview Park roller coaster structures can be seen in the background at left. Gregory Feret: we see the structure past the bridge of an unidentified old Riverview roller-coaster. It's likely to remain unidentified too IMO because none of the latter-day park coasters had tracks that traveled out quite that closeby to Belmont ave. It is known that riverview had coasters that were demolished early on (this photo is 1920 after all) and replaced with others. MWRD posted |
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| MWRD posted The North Branch of the Chicago River, looking north towards the Belmont Avenue Bridge, showing boats and a shipyard on May 27, 1920. [And another view of the Riverview Park amusement ride. In the right background. We are looking at the southeast quadrant of Belmont and the river. The Grebe Shipyard was in the northwest quadrant.] MWRD posted |
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| MWRD posted A shipyard on the North Branch of the Chicago River, just south of Belmont Avenue, on March 9, 1921. Phil Wiegman: By the Riverview park skating rink. Dennis DeBruler: Riverview Park is in the right background. And the Grebe Ship |
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| John Timothy commented on MWRD's second post Map from 1942 |
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| Bill Meyer commented on MWRD's post And, you can see the roller coaster structure at Riverview Park with the American flag above. Cool. Judging by the map below, that rollercoaster would be The Bobs, my favorite! Gregory Feret: that coaster looks very close to Belmont ave, which tells me it's not a coaster at all (riverview never had any coaster so close to Belmont ave), so it very well could be a bicycle 'velocipede' racetrack structure that they did have in those early years. Races "every evening" |
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