Chicago Bridges

Chicago is a wonderful place to study architecture, and thus a wonderful place to photograph architecture. Well after the city was established, the notorious Great Chicago Fire of 1871 leveled a good portion of the downtown area, granting architects a blank canvas to rebuild. With the modern inventions such as the elevator and advances in indoor plumbing, buildings went higher and were built better than ever before. We will look at some Chicago buildings in the next series of posts, and we will start with two of my favorite bridge shots.

Both shots are of old bridges on the north branch of the Chicago River, just a bit northwest of the Merchandise Mart. The brick base was taken in the middle 1970s as the span had become a true bridge to nowhere. The bridge that appears to be a shortcut to the upper floors of a high rise is a recent shot of a retired bridge that stands at eternal attention.

Some high rise buildings in the next post.