Chicago Bridges

The indian proverb says:
Life is a bridge, cross over it but build no house on it
Well that's india
This is chicago
and these are my favorite bridges 

The canal street bridge is a railroad bridge
That crosses the south branch of the chicago river
And it's got a house on it
Always thought they should use that house as a movie location
Like some secret agent crib
Tiny on the outside
Deceptively large and techy on the inside
Brilliant

18th Street Bridge
If you cross the tracks by the Canal Street bridge
and head north
You come upon a pair of mammoth railroad bridges
The St Charles Air line bridge which is down
And the Baltimore and Ohio Chicago Terminal bridge 
which is permanetly up
Notice the huge counterweights
These are bascule bridges
Bascule bridges are drawbridges with a counter weight

Another historic bridge is the Cherry Street bridge
It connects North Avenue to Goose Island
Because of the large counter weight
It could be mistaken for a Bascule Bridge
But it's actually a Swing Bridge
It used to open for river traffic 
like a big door rotating to the east
If look underneath you can see the old turntable

The Lincoln Park Pedestrian Overpass
Allows pedestrians in Lincoln Park to cross over 
Lake Shore Drive to North Ave Beach
and the best ever blizzard photo
was shot from the Overpass

The Damen Ave Bridge 
Is an Arch Suspension bridge
with no latteral braces between the arches
which makes for a very clean & modern design
when it was first built it was red
Now it's gray
I guess gray doesn't fade like the red

The Nichols Bridgeway Connects Millenium park 
to the Modern Wing of the Art Institute
Designed by Architect Renzo Piano
The design is clean and elegant
And it's got some killer views

Architect Frank Gehry's sepentine BP Bridge 
Connects Millenium park to Maggie Daley Park
Now under construction the rehabed park is gonna include
an meandering ice skating ribbon
a children's play area 
climbing walls 
And a great lawn
I can't wait to see it

By visiting Chicago's bridges
We look back at a great city's past
and we look forward to it's future

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