Kinzie Street Bridge

This article is about the vehicle bridge. For the adjacent rail bridge, see Kinzie Street railroad bridge.

The Kinzie Street Bridge is a single-leaf bascule bridge built in 1909 that spans the Chicago River in downtown Chicago, Illinois, United States.

Kinzie Street Bridge
Kinzie Street bridge across the north branch of the Chicago River in July 31, 2010
Coordinates	41°53′21″N 87°38′22″W
Crosses	Chicago River
Named for	John Kinzie
Owner	City of Chicago
ID number	16602826628
Preceded by	Grand Avenue Bridge
Followed by	Lake Street Bridge
Characteristics
Design	Bascule Pratt through truss
Total length	195 feet (59 m)
Width	60 feet (18 m)
Longest span	136.2 feet (41.5 m)
No. of spans	1 main span and 2 approach spans
Load limit	48.5 tons
No. of lanes	4
History
Designer	Alexander von Babo, City of Chicago
Constructed by	John J. Gallery
Construction start	23 January 1908
Construction end	10 May 1909
Construction cost	$218,707.86
Opened	1909
Rebuilt	1999
Statistics
Daily traffic	6,650 (As of 2014)
Location

Incidents

In April 1992, rehabilitation work on the pilings for the bridge damaged a freight tunnel located under the Chicago River. The tunnel breach eventually led to the Chicago flood, which flooded the Chicago Loop with an estimated 250 million US gallons (1,000,000 m³) of water.

In August 2004, a Dave Matthews Band tour bus passing over the bridge dumped 800 pounds of human waste through the open metal grate bridge deck into the Chicago River. The waste landed on an architecture tour cruise boat and passengers passing under the bridge at that time.

External links

• Media related to Kinzie Street Bridge at Wikimedia Commons