The 100 Club

The centennial of the Washington Blvd bridge in 2013, brought to mind a broader question about old bridges in Chicago. How many "100 year old" bridges are there?

It is important to note, that while these bridges have been in place for 100+ years, they have been maintained and rebuilt during their service life. So there will be a limited number of truly "original" pieces left. (An example is the rebuild of the Wells st. bridge in 2012-2013, which will reach the century mark in 2022.)

As with all of these kinds of questions, it depends on the criteria. For my answer here, I count the number of bridges that fall under the purview of CDOT (road bridges) and at one time were movable (tho personally, if they don't move anymore, do they really count in that "most moveable bridges in the world claim"?). No railroad bridges are included in my count.

I have taken the opening dates from the 1973 book "Chicago Public Works: A History."

So how many 100 year old Chicago (CDOT) bridges matching my criteria are there?

So, I count fourteen total - thirteen on the Chicago River and one on the Calumet. In chronological order they are: Cortland St (1902); Division St (1904); Cermak Rd (1906); Kinzie St (1909); Washington Blvd (1913); Grand Ave (1913); 92nd (Ewing Ave - 1914); Jackson Blvd (1916); Lake St (1916); Monroe St (1919); DuSable at Michigan Ave (1920); Franklin St (1920); Wells St (1922); and Madison St (1922).

This group consists of three 1st generation Chicago-type bascules (Cortland, Division, and Kinzie bridges); seven 2nd generation Chicago-type bascules (Washington, Grand, Ewing (92nd), Lake, Monroe, Du Sable at Michigan Ave, and Franklin St, Wells, and Madison) one Strauss designed bridge (Jackson), and one rolling lift bascule (Cermak bridge).

The map below provides the location of the current members of the 100 club. Looking ahead, we will have to wait until 2027 for the next members to hit the century mark.

View 100 club in a larger map