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Per the comment, this photo is looking south along the new channel for the South Branch.
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This photo of a dredging operation by the Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Co. (GLDD) caught my eye because of the two gantry cranes and the coaling tower. The gantry cranes indicate there were team tracks on both sides of the river.
Given the straightness of the river and the Strauss-trunnion bridge on an angle in the background, my theory was that this photo was taken looking southish along the North Branch from Fullerton Ave.
However, the tracks indicated in the 1929, 1953 and 1963 topo maps are not consistent with the railyards along the river in the photo.
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| 1929 Chicago Loop Quadrangle @ 1:24,000 |
And historic aerials are consistent with the topo maps rather than the dredging photo.
My second theory was that it was looking along the North Branch down closer to Wolf Point and the coaling tower was part of C&NW's Erie Yard. But that Strauss-trunnion bridge doesn't have the elephant ear counterweights and the trunnion is on the wrong side of the river.
GLDD was the contractor that straightened the South Branch, but the angle of the bridge is wrong for that location.
Was this dredging operation even done in the Chicagoland area? Does Milwaukee, Detroit, Cleveland and/or Buffalo have any Strauss-trunnion bridges? Actually, Buffalo has three of them, but the Buffalo River is too curvy around each of the three bridges to be a location for the photo.
https://www.instagram.com/p/qkoN7HKS8o/?taken-by=vintagetribune
ReplyDeletehttps://www.facebook.com/MetropolitanWaterReclamationDistrict/posts/1054058064685414
It looks like this was taken during the straightening project. You can see the smokestack and gantries, plus the bascule bridge in the background.
Thank you. As soon as I read your response, my reaction was: of course, why didn't I think of that.
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