East Side and Calumet River

Calumet River view south toward 95th Street. Left side of the river is the East Side neighborhood and the right side is the South Chicago neighborhood. The first bridge at the right is the 95th Street Bridge for street traffic which was built in 1903 and was one of the first trunnion bascule bridges in Chicago. The industrial facility to the left of the bridge was the Iroquois Iron Company which opened in 1890 and would later (c1912) move to the mouth of the Calumet River at Lake Michigan. The plant produced pig iron. Further south, crossing the river are several railroad swing bridges and just beyond those bridges a grain elevator. The railroad bridges were built for the first railroads that came in the 1850s. There were three railroads swing bridges that crossed the Calumet River at that location until they were replaced in the 1910s.