1927+1966 Cicero Avenue Bridge over the CS&SC in Chicago, IL

(Bridge Hunter; Historic Bridges; Satellite)

CS&SC = Chicago Sanitary & Ship Canal

Historic Bridges indicates this bridge was designed by Strauss Engineering instead of the City of Chicago.

If you can find a place to park, it is easy to take photos of railroad bridges from road bridges. But the converse is not true. So I'll use a satellite image.

3D Satellite

MWRD posted
A soil boring crew works along the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal collecting samples for the foundation of the north abutment of the soon-to-be-built Cicero Avenue Bridge in Chicago, Illinois, on August 12, 1921.
[Are the piles still left over from the digging of the canal?]
Dennis DeBruler: This is also a nice view of the powerline that went from the Lockport Powerhouse to the switchyard building just west of Western Avenue.
MWRD posted on Jan 29, 2023
Bridges Now and Then posted
"A soil boring crew works along the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal collecting samples for the foundation of the north abutment of the soon-to-be-built Cicero Avenue Bridge in Chicago, Illinois, on August 12, 1921." (MWRD)

MWRD posted
The Cicero Avenue Bridge construction site on July 2, 1925, viewed looking north from the south side of the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal.
Dennis DeBruler According to Historic Bridges, the bridge was opened in 1927 with just two pony trusses. The third one was added in 1966 when the width was doubled. That is why the bridge looks so narrow in this photo.
https://historicbridges.org/bridges/browser/?bridgebrowser=illinois/cicero/
That expansion must mean that the trusses were over designed by at least a factor of two because the center truss now holds the weight of a whole leaf rather than just half a leaf.
MWRD posted again

MWRD posted
A view of the south span of the Cicero Avenue bridge over the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal on December 10, 1925.

 

MWRD posted
A view to the north showing flooring installation for the Cicero Avenue bridge over the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal on July 13, 1926.

MWRD posted
A view to the south showing flooring installation for the Cicero Avenue bridge over the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal on July 13, 1926. 

 

MWRD posted
A view to the southeast showing flooring installation for the Cicero Avenue bridge over the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal on July 13, 1926. 

 

MWRD posted
A view to the north showing construction of the Cicero Avenue bridge over the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal on September 7, 1926.
Bridges Now and Then posted
"September 7, 1926, Construction of the Cicero Avenue bridge over the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, Chicago, Illinois. The bridge was completed in 1927." (Reddit)
Bridges Now and Then posted again
"September 7, 1926: Construction of the Cicero Avenue Bridge over the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, Chicago, Illinois. The bridge was completed in 1927." (No credit found)
Dennis DeBruler: The source of that photo is the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago, link
[I just noticed the grain elevator in the right background.]

MWRD posted
A view to the east showing workers paving the northern approach to the under-construction Cicero Avenue bridge over the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal on November 5, 1926.

MWRD posted
A view to the north showing workers paving the northern approach to the nearly complete Cicero Avenue bridge over the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal on November 5, 1926.

 

MWRD posted
A view to the west showing Santa Fe railroad tracks and workers driving foundation piles for road viaduct over the railroad near the Cicero Avenue bridge, which was also under construction, on November 5, 1926.

MWRD posted
A view to the north showing construction of the Cicero Avenue bridge over the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal in Chicago, Illinois, on September 7, 1926. The bridge was completed in 1927.

MWRD posted on Jun 4, 2022
Dredging for a cofferdam on the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal prior to construction of a bridge at Cicero Avenue on July 18, 1924.

MWRD posted on Feb 22, 2023
A view to the north from the Cicero Avenue bridge over the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal on October 11, 1926, during work on the north approach to the bridge. The Sanitary District of Chicago (now MWRD) built the bridge between 1924 and 1925 and the south and north approaches to the bridge were constructed between 1926 and 1927.

Steel is stronger in tension than compression

I've talked before about members in a truss bridge that are in tension are cheaper to build than members that are in compression. When I saw this photo I was reminded that steel is weaker in compression.

John Snyder posted

And when I saw this photo a week later, I decided that was close enough for my "2 in 2" rule to write about steel in compression.

William HBaird posted
Covered Hopper MOCX 426425 appears to be the victim of a very hard shove or a collision. Andy Cassidy took this shot in the CP yard in Coquitlam BC in June 2020. www.canadianrailwayobservations.com
Cameron Blanchard Looks like hump damage.
Tom Srb Looks like a Trinity Industry built car, they never did hold up even in normal usage situations.
Dave Drake Took more than a hard shove . Iol
John White Hit pretty hard to bend the sills like that.
Jerry Maddax I’m thinkin,a smidge over 4 mph

Rick Carpenter commented on William's post

And the demonstrations just kept on coming.

Screenshot
Walter A. Keil A fully loaded reefer like I assume that one is need to spread a bar across the top so it picks up straight up not towards the center.
Jim Snowy With the slings angled like that, there is compressive force created in the container. Normally they are lifted with a spreader so the force is purely lifting.

David Carnes commented on the above video
Containers are designed to be lifted from bottom 4 corners when loaded. Top will overstress and buckle them.
https://www.containertechnics.com/en/blog/safelyLifting
Brett Patrick David Carnes They're always top lifted at container terminals, but the jigs they lift with eliminate the included angle component which caused this failure.
Paul Marcati Directions on the side lol
Never pick loaded container from top pick points
Always use lower pick points

Any old truss bridge shows that members in tension are much cheaper (less metal and less fabrication) than members in compression. This is an example of v-lacing compression members.

Old Renwick Road

HAER explains that the truss members were fabricated in their shop and then shipped to the site and assembled using a local work crew under the supervision of a field agent who worked for the bridge company.

Morris Terminal RR Bridge over I&M Canal

This Big Four Bridge over the Ohio River is so big that even the "simple" members are rather substantial.

20151009 1090

Another bridge that has been converted to pedestrian use and allowed me to get up close and personal with the truss members was the 135th Street Bridge in Romeoville, IL.

20200313 1689

20170121 7700, Abandoned C&NW in Carpentersville, IL

This bridge is basically a Warren Truss. They evidently don't have pure tension members. But the vertical members are thinner than the diagonal members.

HV/C&O over Hocking River

The swing span is a Warren Truss, but the approach spans are Pratt trusses and the diagonals have just tension so they are simple bars.

Wabash Cannon Ball over Wabash River

Three Swing Bridges over Saginaw River in Bay City, MI

Going downstream:
1890-1976 Lost/Third Street: (Bridge Hunter; Satellite)
1905 CM/MC + CN/GTW: (Bridge Hunter; Historic Bridges; Satellite) CM = Central Michigan
1892 LSRC/Detroit & Mackinac: (Bridge Hunter; Historic Bridges; Satellite) LSRC= Lake State Railway

You can tell that shipping is active on the Saginaw River because the railroad bridges are normally open.

Lost Third Street Bridge

JA Garfield posted two images with the comment: "Third Street Bridge 1889-1976, Bay City, Michigan. It opened in the middle of the night for a ship, and collapsed. Drawing by Scott Shaver."

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Brdges Now and Then posted
"Bay City, Michigan's Third Street Bridge collapsed as it opened for river traffic on June 18, 1976. The operator and his grandson were inside the operator shack when it cracked and broke open. They suffered minor injuries. Liberty Bridge later replaced it." (Michael Randolph/The Bay City Times)

JA Garfield posted seven photos with the comment:

More pictures of the Third Street Bridge, over the Saginaw River, that connected the east and west side of Bay City, Michigan. It was built in 1872, and collapsed June 18, 1976 as it opened for a ship at 3:10am. It had been struck by another ship passing trough the day before, which probably did structural damage.

Dan Mathers What is happening to the bridge today?
JA Garfield Dan Mathers Unfortunately they pulled it down, and built a typical DOT type drawbridge downstream to replace this, and another two lane swing bridge in town. Both new bridges have been nothing but trouble, and are down for repairs, more than they are open to traffic.
[I could not find a two lane swing bridge.]
JA Garfield When I was a kid, when we would hear a ship blowing for the bridge downstream, we would ride our bikes to this bridge, and ride the span when it swung open. We'd get a great close up view of the ships as they passed through a couple feet away.

[Bridge Hunter has newspaper clipping concerning the collapse.]

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JA Garfield posted three photos.

1, cropped

2

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1905 Central Michigan/Michigan Central and Canadian National/Grand Trunk Western

Also known as the Bay City Bridge.

Street View

C Hanchey Flickr, Jun 2012, License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) via Bridge Hunter
Central Michigan Railway Saginaw River Bridge (Bay City, Michigan)
Through truss swing bridge on the Central Michigan Railway over the Saginaw River in Bay City, Michigan.

 

Todd Shorkey posted
Calumet inbound on the Saginaw River at the Liberty Bridge, headed up to the GM Dock in Saginaw to unload. 12/12/23

Fred Sibert, Aug 2019
[This is obviously the MC Swing Bridge. It was mislabeled the Liberty Bridge. The Liberty Bridge is on the right in this photo.]

Marty Benard shared
Central Michigan RR Excursion with U23B 8904 built as Missouri Pacific 669 in Jan. 1973 crossing the Saginaw River in Michigan in 1992, Karl Miller photos.

Dennis DeBruler commented on Marty's share
Judging from photos and satellite images, this bridge is normally open.
https://bridgehunter.com/mi/bay/bh52118/
I found a Jun 2016 Google Earth that shows the bridge operating. It is almost in the closed position.

Todd Shorkey posted
Cuyahoga was outbound on the Saginaw River Friday morning, after unloading overnight in Saginaw. She again ran into difficulty when Liberty Bridge in Bay City did not open, causing Cuyahoga to take action for the second day in a row at this bridge, this time fighting the wind and current. On Thursday during their inbound trip, Cuyahoga had to come to a stop at Liberty for almost 30 minutes before the bridge opened for her.
[The Liberty Bridge is in the foreground.]

12 photos and maps (source)

Logan Savoie: Branch across the river was abandoned in 1941, bridge subsequently scrapped to use the metal for the war effort.

1892 Lake State Railway/Detroit & Mackinaw

Street View

JA Garfield commented on a post
It was abandoned for many years and has recently been rehabilitated for use by the Lake State Railway, which runs on some of the old Michigan Central, and New York Central tracks in mid Michigan. A picture from September [2018]:

2 of 5 photos posted by Ben VanOchten with the comment: "The Dorothy Ann / Pathfinder was back in town over the weekend. She headed to Saginaw and then headed outbound towards Stoneport. Got some neat pictures of her going through the train bridge!"

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Chris Williams posted
I originally took my drone out to take some pics and videos of the USS Edson to practice and was treated to an unexpected guest. Hello there, Algoma Compass!

I found several piles of aggregates on both sides of the river in Saginaw, MI. 

Satellite

Todd Shorkey posted
John J. Boland inbound on the Saginaw River at the Lake State Railway Bridge, headed to the GM dock in Saginaw to unload coal. Olive L. Moore/Menominee is in the background, tied up at the Port Fisher Terminals Dock in Bay City. October 1, 2022
[The GM plant is a "metal casting operation." (How many aluminum castings does an eletric car need?) Casting needs a lot of sand. That plant used to have its own slip. But now it must share the "GM Stone Dock" [boatnerd] that is across the river. A satellite image shows that all of the piles are shades of grey. But coal is black. In this day and age of closing power plants, who would be trucking coal from this dock?]

1 of 4 photos posted by Todd Shorkey
Dorothy Ann - Pathfinder outbound on the Saginaw River after unloading overnight at the GM Dock in Saginaw.  The pair were delayed for a short time between the Independence and Lake State Railway Bridges for a passing train.  
10/23/23

2 of 11 photos posted by Saginaw River Images with the comment: "Herbert C. Jackson outbound on the Saginaw River after delivering a split load to the Wirt Stone Docks in Bay City and Saginaw. 10/28/23"

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This bridge is at the boundary of Bay City and Essexville.

1 of 3 photos posted by Todd Shorkey
Olive L. Moore - Menominee, outbound the Saginaw River at the Lake State Railway Bridge in Essexville, on Wednesday, December 13th.  The pair had arrived a few days earlier on the 11th to unload.
[I'm seeing more and more photos of articulated tugs.]