One of the most amazing things about downtown is when you're lucky enough to see the Bascule bridges, also known as Chicago bridges raise to let sailboats through. I've been eating lunch in the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Park along the river, and I captured a series of the State Street bridge raising.
The bridge is just starting to raise as the sailboats circle waiting to get through.
The bridge seems to snap in the middle like a pencil. 
I really dig the look of Marina City in the background. 
The bridge is all the way up - and in under a minute. It's amazing.
A man gazes at the passing yachts.
This last boat barely snuck through. They had to stop the bridge lowering to let him in.
It is what it is
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
Raising the State Street Bridge
Spewed out by Will at 19:12
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8 comments:
always amazing. my grandfather was the first (or maybe second) tender of the michigan ave bridge for the last thirty nine years of his working life in Chicago. He arrived here as an eighteen year old without any money, only the name" michael foley" in his pocket. It was said that if you couldn't find work in Chicago you couldn't find it anywhere.
and he found it. stockyards for eleven cents an hour, later a sreetcar driver. the bridge gig was followed by a thirty four year retirement.
For all those bridge-lifting gazers and yacht owners out there; here's the schedule for when they go up on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays through the Fall (warning PDF file):
http://egov.cityofchicago.org/webportal/COCWebPortal/COC_EDITORIAL/Bridgeliftspring2006_2.pdf
Chicago DOT press release (not a PDF, no worries):
http://egov.cityofchicago.org/city/webportal/portalContentItemAction.do?BV_SessionID=@@@@1122734380.1147961253@@@@&BV_EngineID=cccfaddhkmfekdecefecelldffhdfgm.0&contentOID=536937218&contenTypeName=COC_EDITORIAL&topChannelName=HomePage
Listen to Lenny
what's up with the pdf warning?
Some people hate opening PDF's because it takes Adobe forever to load, and then often freezes or causes your browser to crash.
Thus, the warning if you're one of those people.
Whatevs. I love Marina City.
Ghost hooker #2589 haunts me.
It's true.
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