May 12, 2026
Raise the bridge, lower the calm
Chasing Chicago's movable bridges (2014)
Chicago’s giant bridge show had fans swooning, nitpickers correcting, and locals bragging
TLDR: A photographer chased Chicago’s giant moving bridges as they opened one by one for boats, turning an ordinary spring day into a mechanical spectacle. In the comments, locals brought nostalgia, travel tips, and some playful one-upmanship over which city has the coolest bridge scene.
What should have been a simple photo essay about Chicago’s famous moving bridges turned into a full-on comment-section block party. The original story follows one very committed weekend mission: flying into Chicago, hopping in a car with a local friend, and chasing bridge after bridge as they lifted in sequence so boats could pass through. Readers were dazzled by the sight of these massive roadways rising like “seesaws for giants,” especially once they learned many are more than a century old and still doing their thing with surprising grace.
But the real fun was in the reactions. One local instantly went nostalgic, reminiscing about watching traffic stop at the bridge by the expressway and riding through the old post office as a kid on the way to the Museum of Science and Industry. That set the tone: for some, this wasn’t just infrastructure, it was pure childhood memory bait. Then came the classic internet correction squad: one commenter was shocked the piece skipped the McCormick Bridgehouse Museum, basically saying, nice photos, but how do you write about these bridges and leave out the place where you can actually go inside one?
And naturally, the thread drifted into low-stakes civic rivalry. A reader from Vancouver Island popped in to say Canada has a stunning bascule bridge too, while someone else casually flexed that in their city, bridges like this go up and down dozens of times a day. The vibe was equal parts awe, local pride, travel tips, and the gentle chaos of people turning a bridge story into a debate about whose bridge culture is most elite.
Key Points
- •The article documents a day spent following Chicago’s spring sequence of movable bridge openings.
- •Chicago opens 27 bridges in sequence during spring to let boats reach the lake, and reverses the sequence in the fall.
- •Most of the featured structures are bascule bridges that use balanced counterweights so motors only need to tip them.
- •Many of the movable bridges shown were built more than 100 years ago, including examples from 1906 and 1916.
- •The Amtrak rail bridge on Canal Street is identified as the only featured bridge using a traditional lift design rather than a bascule design.