Patrick T. McBriarty

A glance at this book might make you think it is "coffee table" material--and it is. It is not, however, just another pretty face. Old and new photographs and illustrations complement Patrick McBriarty's well researched and well written history of the bridge system that currently serves Chicago.

The Chicago River makes a peninsula of the city center. The river has been a means of transport of goods and people, a dump for sewage, and a tourist attraction. But, without its bridges, it is an impediment to commerce and travel from the city center to the land to the west and the north. Chicagoans, ever interested in growth, devised ways to cross the river and yet allow ship traffic to bring necessary commodities through the city from Lake Michigan.

In "Chicago River Bridges" McBriarty chronicles the development of the ferries, swing bridges, vertical lift bridges, and bascule bridges from Chicago's beginnings to the present to provide for essential movement of people and vehicles across the river. He recounts the anecdotes and legends, and explains the mechanics. He conveys the grit and spirit of that has made Chicago the drawbridge capital of the world. Read it! But don't mess it up. You will want to put it on the coffee table when you have finished.… (meer)