La Salle Street Bridge | |
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![]() View of the bridge from the Wells Street Bridge | |
Coordinates | 41°53′15″N87°37′57″W / 41.887484°N 87.632474°W |
Carries | Automobiles Pedestrians |
Crosses | Chicago River |
Locale | Chicago, Cook County, Illinois |
Official name | La Salle Street Bridge |
Other name(s) | Marshall Suloway Bridge |
Maintained by | Chicago Department of Transportation |
ID number | 000016603226800 |
Characteristics | |
Total length | 242 feet (74 m) |
Width | 86 feet (26 m) |
Longest span | 220 feet (67 m) |
Clearance above | 18.7 feet (5.7 m) |
History | |
Designer | Donald Becker |
Opened | 1928 |
Statistics | |
Daily traffic | 12050 [1] |
Location | |
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The La Salle Street Bridge (officially the Marshall Suloway Bridge) is a single-deck double-leaf trunnion bascule bridge spanning the main stem of the Chicago River in Chicago, Illinois, [2] that connects the Near North Side with the Loop area. It was constructed in 1928 at a cost of $2,500,000 [3] by the Strobel Steel Constructing Company.
The bridge was part of a scheme to widen LaSalle Street and improve access from the Loop to the north side of the river that had been proposed as early as 1902. [4] The design of the bridge, along with those for new bridges at Madison Street, Franklin Street, and Clark Street, was approved in 1916. [5]
The Chicago City Council renamed the bridge in 1999 to honor former Chicago Department of Public Works Commissioner Marshall Suloway. [6]
The Loop, one of Chicago's 77 designated community areas, is the central business district of the city and is the main section of Downtown Chicago. Home to Chicago's commercial core, it is the second largest commercial business district in North America and contains the headquarters and regional offices of several global and national businesses, retail establishments, restaurants, hotels, and theaters, as well as many of Chicago's most famous attractions. It is home to Chicago's City Hall, the seat of Cook County, and numerous offices of other levels of government and consulates of foreign nations. The intersection of State Street and Madison Street is the origin point for the address system on Chicago's street grid. Most of Grant Park's 319 acres (1.29 km2) are in the eastern section of the community area. The Loop community area is bounded on the north and west by the Chicago River, on the east by Lake Michigan, and on the south by Roosevelt Road.
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