Preservation Chicago released its “Most Endangered” list for 2025 (on March 4, Chicago's 188th birthday). Included with six threatened buildings is a bridge that allowed tens of millions of visitors to cross the Lagoon during the 1893 World’s Fair. Designed by renowned architectural firm of Burnham & Root, the bridge was built in 1880 and is the oldest extant structure of Frederick Law Olmsted’s original design for Jackson Park. Officially renamed the Clarence Darrow Memorial Bridge in 1957, the [...]

Very few structures from the fairgrounds of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago have survived. One of them has stood in a state of disrepair behind a chain-link fence for fifteen years. The University of Chicago student newspaper, the Chicago Maroon, had provided an update on efforts to repair this historic bridge in Jackson Park. Evgenia Anastasakos’ “Community Members Organize to Preserve Historic Jackson Park Bridge” (August 5, 2024) highlights the efforts of the newly formed Clarence Darrow [...]