Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 October 1893 — A WONDERFUL BRIDGE. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

A WONDERFUL BRIDGE.

It Is in Coarse of Constraetion at Pro. grresslve Chicago. New York prides itself, and with good reason, upon the wonderful bridge which connects it with Brooklyn. It is, as everybody knows, or should know, the biggest and finest suspension bridge in the world, but Chicago (always immediately in Gotham’s wake) is now engaged in erecting a really wonderful structure. The illustration shows it to good advantage. It is known as a “lift bridge,” and is being built across the river at South Halsted street from a design by a Kansas City man. The scheme contemplates a fixed span of two trusses, the roadway wide enough to accommodate four lines of teams and two sidewalks about seven and a half feet in the clear. At each end of the span, on either side of the river, are high steel towers which serve as vertical guides and at the top of which are twelve-foot diameter sheaves or pulleys over which the hoisting cables pass. The general plan of raising the bridge is exactly the same as that of an ordinary elevator, there being the usual engines, hoisting cables, counterweights, and compensating chains. The clearance from the mean stage of water to the lowest portion of the bridge is fifteen feet, which is ample to permit the passing of tugs. The towers are high enough to permit of the bridge being raised 140 feet, giving a total clear-

ance of 155 feet, which is sufficient to clear the highest mast. The specifications call for the raising of the bridge to its full height in fifty seconds. The whole structure Is figured to resist a gale pressure given by a wind of 100 miles an hour, thus making it entirely secure. Both on the piers on which the bridge rests and at the tops of the towers are hydraulic buffers which prevent any jar in raising the bridge to its full height or lowering it to its seat on the piers. It gives a clear channel parallel to the bed of the river and in the center of the river of 100 feet. At the same time the end piers are sufficiently removed to allow all craft to get up as near the bank as desired.

SOUTH HALSTED STREET LIFT BRIDGE, CHICAGO.