95th Street Bridge

95th Street bridge, completed in 1903. It is the second bridge at the site and replaced a swing bridge formerly at the location. The first documented bridge at this location was a hand-operated “Howe truss” swing bridge built in 1891. The bridge in this post card was one of the earliest trunnion bascule bridges built in Chicago. You can see trolleys of the Calumet Street Electric Railway waiting for the bridge to close on both sides of the bridge. The bridge remained in use for over 50 years. Planning for the current 95th St. bridge began in 1950, construction began in 1955, and it was opened to traffic on June 27, 1958. The clearance under the new six-lane bridge is 21 ft. This was 4.5 ft. more than the old bridge to allow more vessels to pass under the bridge without having to raise it. While the current bridge is a hard working piece of infrastructure, it is most remembered for the jump scene in the Hollywood movie, The Blues Brothers (1980), starring John Belushi and Dan Ackroyd, and is referred to by locals as the “Blues Brothers Bridge.”https://youtu.be/QTOg4aYGtdY