Free previewStop 8 of Chicago Loop Architecture Walking Tour
The Bridge That Moved Downtown North
You're standing on the Michigan Avenue Bridge, which Chicagoans still call by that name even though, since 2010, the signs say DuSable Bridge. Below you runs the main stem of the Chicago River. Look north, across the water, to the gleaming white building with the clock tower. That's the Wrigley Building, and this bridge is the reason it's standing there.
For decades, the river was a wall. Downtown stopped at its south bank. A boulevard linking the parks on the south and north sides was proposed as early as 1891, and the ideas came thick and fast. A tunnel. A double-decked version of the old Rush Street bridge. Someone even suggested a copy of the Pont Alexandre III in Paris. Then Daniel Burnham, the same Burnham whose Rookery and Monadnock you saw earlier today, folded the bridge into his 1909 Plan of Chicago.
And then Chicago did what Chicago does.
That's the opening. The rest plays at stop 8 of Chicago Loop Architecture Walking Tour (3 min in all). Unlock the tour to hear it all, or try stop 1 free first.
