Thanks to Beth Voigt for today’s seed!

The Kinzie St. Bridge to Nowhere

Chicago is a bridge lovers paradise. With three branches of the river snaking through all parts of town, every major thoroughfare has multiple bridges. Built at different periods over 150 years, the bridges are like a museum. Many world records were set here, and several have a place on the National Registry.

The first bridge was at what is now Kinzie Street, and it was just for people. Then the railroad came and in 1852, a bridge was built to accommodate the heavy trains. This was replaced three times, leaving us with the current Kinzie Street railroad bridge, which in 1908 was the world’s heaviest bascule bridge.

The significance of the bascule bridge is that its weight is offset: lifting it is made trivial due to the weight underneath that nearly matches the weight of the entire bridge. If you imagine a long board with a weight at one end, you get the idea. Because of its massive size, the Kinzie St. Bridge replaced three other bridges. The bridge was responsible for transporting much of the 20th centuries goods and raw materials across the river and into America.

Times change. By 2000 there was only one client left across the bridge: The Chicago-Sun Times (who recently did a nice piece about us.) Once the Sun-Times moved their printing out of the city, there was no need for a bridge and it has been left permanently open ever since.

And therein lies the problem. The bridge is historic and yet useless. What’s to be done with it? There are talks about making it a pedestrian bridge, but at present, it’s a very heavy and expensive perch for birds.

Connecting Windy City: The Kinzie Street Railroad Bridge

The Bridge Troll

Other bridges in Chicago are also historic, but maintain their use for the ever-increasing amount of vehicular traffic Chicago has. But that doesn’t stop them from being used for other purposes.

A gentleman by the name of Richard Dorsay longed for a Lake Shore Drive home, but as his non-existent salary didn’t lend itself to such a posh address, he decided to do a bit of homesteading… by building a comfortable home INSIDE a working drawbridge.

After noticing a large crack in the bridge that carries most of the city’s commuter traffic, he crawled around and found space to build a home. Over time, he had a rudimentary shack built, and using a bit of ingenuity he found a way to add some furniture. But what’s a home without creature comforts? In this spirit, he ran electricity from the bridge tender’s building and soon had heat, a microwave, television and even a Playstation. He was known to invite friends over the watch the Bears games with a few beers and nachos.

Did we mention that this was a drawbridge? To quote Mr. Dorsay, “The first time it was scary,” he said. “After that, it was almost like riding a Ferris wheel.” Yes, the shack would completely rotate as the bridge went up. He learned to move heavy objects agains the walls that would become floors, and used blankets and other materials to camouflage the shack from onlookers.

He did this for three or four years, and even had a few tenants who had other shacks near his. In the end, his Sunday ballgame generosity got the better of him, and one of his friends turned him in for a lesser sentence. The police came, laughed a lot, and had the structures removed.

USA Today: Man found living comfortably inside Chicago drawbridge

Lower Wacker

When a bridge isn’t handy, other shelter must be found. One popular gathering place is called Lower Wacker Drive. Wacker Drive is split into two parts, with the lower part existing as a large underground cavern. You know it from the Batman movies.

It has become the de facto residence for many of Chicago’s homeless, and on the coldest nights, it’s here that aid workers focus their efforts.

Sometimes, something nice happens here. In November of 2013, Patrick Angelo stopped at McDonald’s and ordered eighty hamburgers and 47 coffees. He then proceeded down to Lower Wacker and distributed the food to hungry people from his Cadillac.

And while that was a nice gesture, it becomes something more than that when it’s repeated twice a week for at least 12 years, as Patrick has done. And food isn’t all he gives out: his trunk is full of hats, socks and blankets. One year he got the shoe sizes for the women in lower Wacker and returned with boots for them all.

Unaffiliated with any agency or church group, Angelo says he’s not interested in attention or politics: he’s only trying to give people what they need in the moment. Batman may have been filmed here, but the real heroes remain.

Huffington Post: Patrick Angelo

The Great Flood

While mole people—homeless people who live in underground tunnels—are somewhat fictional and live mostly in New York City, there are enough tunnels under Chicago to support a good population. However, there are probably safer places.

In 1899, Illinois Telephone and Telegraph received permission to build tunnels beneath the city. The city gave permission, but prohibited manholes, forcing IT&T to build a narrow gauge rail system to move cables about. Following the “it’s easier to ask forgiveness than permission” policy, the tunnels were dug a bit more ambitiously than the city was aware of and eventually stretched for 60 miles and housed 132 electric locomotives. The entire downtown area was riddled with tunnels. Government corruption made it easy to get away with such things.

By the 1950’s, these tunnels were no longer used and were largely forgotten. So when in 1991 men putting in piles in the river above the tunnel were a couple of feet off, no one cared much. A few months later, water started pouring into the tunnels.

At first, the source of the flooding—which was 40 feet deep in some basements—was unknown. The city shut off water mains trying to stem the tide. It wasn’t until reporter Larry Langford noticed a whirlpool in the river that people put two and two together.

Before long, Merchandise Mart, the largest commercial building in the world was flooding. City Hall flooded next, followed by the Federal Reserve Bank and the downtown hotels. Since the tunnels were empty space below buildings, computer equipment and cables were installed there. They shorted out, bringing the Chicago Stock Exchange and other businesses down with them.

In a desperate attempt to stop the leak, city workers dumped trucks full of concrete, rocks and mattresses into the 2o foot wide hole. What they ended up with as a whirlpool being circled by discarded bedding. The leak was finally stopped not by plugging the hole, but by sealing the surrounding tunnels. The cost to the city, $1.95 billion.

While there were no deaths, the area of the flood is associated with death. The pilings were originally driven to protect an old bridge. In fact, it was on land owned by first murderer in Chicago: John Kinzie. John Kinzie owned the land where the Kinzie Street bridge was built, and in 1812 he murdered interpreter Jean La Lime for revealing secrets about government corruption in the area.

Wikipedia: Chicago Flood