My Life in Pictures
LAKE STREET BRIDGE
The Bridge That Refused to Die
NOTE: this is not the bridge that collapsed along 35W.
That happened a few miles up river.
This is the Lake Street Bridge I was most familiar with growing up.
They decided to build a new one years ago because it was deemed unsafe. They even went so far as to stop bus traffic across it
out of fear of collapse. They had these little shuttle buses. It was weird.
They started building next to it, so as to keep traffic flow... flowing. Maybe half of the new bridge had been completed one hot
summer day when Ibet (childhood friend who abhorred that nickname) and I were playing badminton in my backyard and heard a tremendous noise.
Being kids, we thought, "That's weird." and went back to playing.
Minutes later, a neighbor came walking by and told us that the bridge had collapsed. Fearing the worst (cars and people being
tossed into the Mississippi), we ran the two blocks to check it out. It turned out the NEW bridge had collapsed. It was at a
90-degree angle and swinging back and forth violently. It was quite the sight. Since the old bridge was unaffected, a major catastrophe was averted.
Unfortunately, however, two workers died in the accident after falling from where they were working on the new bridge.
They repaired the new bridge, finished it, and finally rerouted traffic onto it, preparing to tear down the old one. They had
ripped it up pretty well, trying to weaken it so as to ensure an easy takedown. Then came the day that they were finally ready to tear the old,
unsafe bridge down.
They couldn't.
The bridge was so well built they couldn't tear it down. I think they finally had to blow it up to take the poor thing down.
I was always pleased about that (the strength part not the exploding part). I miss that old bridge.
Here's a shot of the old bridge with a street car:
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