Bridge Towers | The Watchful Eyes

At either end of the 38 bridges that span the Chicago River are these beautiful bridge towers. While many have been decommissioned, the towers remain landmarks to a city that still relies heavily on the functioning of the bridge and waterway systems. The towers have certainly served a valuable service over the many years by keeping watch over the safety of traffic below and above the bridges as well as the crucial raising and lowing of the roadway to allow boats to pass.

Each bridge has a pair of towers on opposite sides and are uniquely designed for that particular bridge. As you can see from the photos, they range widely in style- from sturdy Federal and Imperial constructions to the downright cute and quaint Cape Cod style.

Getting up close and personal with this great iron monster was pretty cool. Built around the turn of the last century as a train bridge to facilitate the transportation of industrial-sized goods in and out of Chicago, it was operated by a multi-man crew stationed in the central control house (below picture). Interesting to note, the area behind the bridge was used as the setting for the Batcave in the latest Batman movie The Dark Knight.