(Above) Pulled by a smaller tugboat, the excursion boat Theodore Roosevelt sails east under the State Street Bridge in 1910. In the boat at left, the Cruso, a man can be seen leaning on a portside window. In the background at right is the Dearborn Street Bridge, an upward-swinging bascule bridge built in 1907. In the building at right was the Steele-Wedeles Company, a large wholesale grocer. The 20-story Hotel Nikko Chicago replaced it in 1987. Since 1997, it has been The Westin Chicago River North. Click on images to view larger versions.

December 29, 2011 – Two photographs of the State Street Bridge, one from 1902 and the other from 1910, are among more than 21,000 photographs recently unearthed that document the reversal of the Chicago River.

The photos, shot with large format view cameras onto glass negatives, were captured between 1894 and 1928 for the Sanitary District of Chicago. The Chicago River was reversed to keep the city’s sewage out of Lake Michigan. The negatives were found in 2009 in a Sanitary District warehouse.

In The Lost Panoramas, authors Richard Cahan and Michael Williams have assembled these images, many of which fit together to form seamless panoramas. CityFiles Press, a smaller Chicago company, published the book. The photos are also on display through April 29, 2012, at The Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum in Chicago’s Lincoln Park.

(Below) Construction of the State Street Bridge in 1902, looking northeast from the south bank. The men at lower left are working on a “cofferdam” that was intended to keep water out of the area where the bridge was being built. Apparently, the effort was not successful. Signs in the background include ones for London Porter, John M. Smyth Company, and Lydon & Drews Company.

Websites:

• CityFiles Press
• The Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum