If downtown bascule bridges are show ponies—with curved, double-leaf spans painted a deep maroon—vertical lift bridges are Chicago’s underappreciated workhorses.
In time, I would learn the truth. Vertical lift bridges were favored in the 1910s—unlike bascule bridges, they required counterweights only as heavy as the bridge span itself. That meant that the spans could be heavier, and were thus well suited for freight-train traffic.
