Canal Street Bridge: The Heaviest Lift in America
Near Chicago Lake Michigan, Illinois
Crossing the South Branch of the Chicago River here is one of the most remarkable railroad structures in the country. The Canal Street vertical-lift bridge was completed in nineteen fourteen for the Pennsylvania Railroad, replacing a swing bridge that had stood since eighteen eighty-three. Designed by the firm of Waddell and Harrington, its main span stretches two hundred seventy-three feet and weighs one thousand five hundred tons.
When it opened, that made it the heaviest vertical-lift span ever built in the United States. Two towers rise one hundred eighty-five feet above the rails, and the whole deck can be hoisted more than one hundred feet into the air to let river traffic pass. It remains the only vertical-lift bridge across the Chicago River.
Today it still carries Amtrak long-distance trains and Metra commuter runs, and it is a Chicago Landmark.
