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Congress Parkway Bridge
Congress Parkway Bridge and the Old Post Office
Coordinates	41°52′32.3″N 87°38′12″W / 41.875639°N 87.63667°W / 41.875639; -87.63667
Carries	Motor vehicles on Ida B. Wells Drive
Crosses	South Branch Chicago River
Locale	Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Official name	Wagner Memorial Bridge
Other name(s)	Ida B. Wells Drive Bridge
Characteristics
Design	Dual-span fixed-trunnion bascule bridge
No. of lanes	7
History
Construction cost	$5 million
Opened	1956
Rebuilt	1981; 2010–2012
Location

Congress Parkway Bridge, also known as Ida B. Wells Drive Bridge and officially named the Wagner Memorial Bridge, is a seven-lane bascule bridge crossing the South Branch Chicago River, providing an expressway connection between Interstate 290 (Eisenhower Expressway) and Ida B. Wells Drive/Wacker Drive. The bridge is located immediately to the east of a highway tunnel in the Old Post Office.

History

The bridge was first conceived by Daniel Burnham and Edward H. Bennett in the 1909 Plan of Chicago. The plan proposed Congress Street to be the main east–west boulevard in downtown and the West Side. City planners eventually opted for a superhighway instead of a boulevard by the 1920s; Bennett advocated for the superhighway to travel along Congress Street rather than Monroe Street, as some planners suggested.

When the U.S. Post Office Department proposed an expansion of the Old Post Office in the late 1920s, the expansion would have physically blocked the proposed superhighway and the bridge approach. After negotiating with the Chicago Plan Commission and Edward Bennett, both of which opposed the expansion, the Post Office Department built a tunnel through the expanded structure for the future superhighway. The newly expanded building opened in 1932.

In the 1940 Comprehensive Superhighway Plan, the city of Chicago designated the superhighway as its highest priority due to high traffic volume on the West Side; land acquisition and construction on the highway right of way began in 1949. The bridge itself began construction in 1950 and opened to traffic in 1956 at the cost of $5 million (equivalent to $56 million in 2023).

On July 13, 1953, during the bridge's construction, the city council named the bridge in honor of the late 14th Ward Alderman Clarence P. Wagner, a powerful city politician who was killed in a car crash three days prior near International Falls, Minnesota.

Reconstruction

The bridge was first rehabilitated in 1981 to replace the steel bridge deck and adding Jersey barrier in place of a curb on the median.

The bridge was rehabilitated for the second time from April 1, 2010, to May 15, 2012, as part of a $33 million project, which replaced the steel deck with a paved bridge surface and repaired the bridge structure.

References

1. "Congress Parkway Bridge". HistoricBridges.org. Retrieved 24 December 2024.
2. ^ "Ida B. Wells Drive: A Prominent Street Honoring a Bold Civil Rights Leader". Loop Chicago. Retrieved 24 December 2024.
3. ^ Loerzel, Robert. "Displaced: When the Eisenhower Expressway Moved in, Who Was Forced Out?". WBEZ. Retrieved 24 December 2024.
4. "Vintage: Chicago's main post office". Chicago Tribune. 17 March 2016. Retrieved 24 December 2024.
5. ^ "Congress Street Bridge". Chicagology. Retrieved 24 December 2024.
6. ^ Hammad, Ahmad M.; Grainawi, Jamal. "Congress Parkway Bascule Bridge Rehabilitation over the South Branch of the Chicago River" (PDF). Retrieved 24 December 2024.
7. Schmidt, John R. (11 June 2012). "Clarence Wagner's bridge". WBEZ. Retrieved 24 December 2024.
8. "Chicago Bridge Rededicated To Honor Former Alderman". CBS News. 10 July 2013. Retrieved 24 December 2024.
9. "Governor Quinn Announces Re-Opening of Congress Parkway Bridge". 15 May 2012. Retrieved 24 December 2024.
10. "Congress Parkway Bridge Finally Reopens". CBS News. 15 May 2012. Retrieved 24 December 2024.

External links

• Media related to Congress Parkway Bridge at Wikimedia Commons

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• Bridges in Chicago