For over 100 years, Chicago has been a leader in drawbridge technology, and in error has occasionally boasted of having the greatest number of drawbridges. In actuality, Amsterdam holds that title, and in classic Second City form, Chicago is second in this regard. Despite being in second place, Chicago can still rightfully claim the title “Drawbridge Capital of the World.”
Chicago’s rapid growth spurred frequent moveable bridge replacement and experimentation to meet the needs of the evolving city. The high value of land and concentration of business and industry on the prairie landscape made drawbridges the ideal solution to connect a city trisected by the Y-shaped Chicago River. This river, which acted as both a harbor and waterway, created a natural proving ground for moveable bridge design. Today Chicago still retains more than a dozen unique drawbridge designs despite the passage of more than 100 years since the advent of commercial-grade steel and the great steel ships that gave birth to today’s modern moveable bridge designs
The Cermak Road Bridge District consists of the City’s finest intact ensemble of riverfront industrial buildings grouped around the last remaining double leaf Scherzer Rolling Lift bridge in operation in Chicago. This bridge was designed by Scherzer Rolling Lift Bridge Company. Today this type of movable bridge is in fact known as a Scherzer rolling lift bascule bridge. In Chicago, where the city usually built trunnion bascule bridges, this is the only remaining example of this bridge type on Chicago’s roads.
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