The Clarence Darrow Memorial Bridge has seen better days. Closed since 2015 due to structural deterioration, this pedestrian bridge provides the only east-west path across Jackson Park between the Museum of Science and Industry at E. 57th Street on the north to almost E. 63rd Street / Hayes Drive on the south end. Its reconstruction and re-opening is welcome news to everyone who uses Jackson Park and especially to 1893 World’s Fair enthusiasts who enjoy visiting the old fairgrounds.
Construction of the fairgrounds, showing the original bridge across the isthmus between the Lagoon and North Pond.
During the 1893 Columbian Exposition, a bridge spanned this same location on the isthmus between North Pond (a.k.a. “Columbia Basin”) and the Lagoon, allowing visitors to pass between the Brazil and Japan exhibits on the eastern grounds and the Illinois Building on the west side.
Frederick Law Olmsted’s 1895 redesign of Jackson Park included the construction of a wider bridge with a new deck that incorporated some parts of the earlier structure, including the prominent stone abutments and the decorative metal railings. In 1957, this new bridge was re-named the Clarence Darrow Memorial Bridge, dedicated to the legendary Chicago attorney, Clarence Darrow (1857-1938). A commemorative plaque was added in 1963.
The Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) reported in August 2017 that after a 2-year search for funding, work would begin in 2019 on repairing the 122-year-old bridge. The price tag? $6 million.
Let that sink in for a minute (the cost, not the bridge). This $6-million restoration project will cost approximately $240,000 in 1893 dollars—an amount that exceeds the cost of building Henry Ives Cobb’s Fisheries Building ($225,000) and only slightly below the cost of erecting Solon Beman’s Mines and Mining Building ($265,000). Of course, those were temporary structures, and we’d like for the Darrow Bridge to accommodate park visitors for at least another 120 years.
Image of the Darrow Bridge from the Hyde Park Herald