Taylor Street Bridge, bridge in Chicago, Illinois, U.S

The Taylor Street Bridge is a bascule bridge that once crossed the South Branch of the Chicago River in Illinois. It featured a Scherzer rolling lift design that could raise vertically to allow boat traffic to pass underneath.

The original bridge arrived in 1890 from Adams Street and served for years but deteriorated quickly and hindered shipping. It closed in 1899 and was replaced by a modern Scherzer lift bridge that opened in 1901 and operated until 1928, when the straightened river made the location obsolete.

Nothing of the bridge remains: it was closed without a replacement in 1928, when the straightening of the South Branch Chicago River removed the crossing. The site is now open water and riverbank rather than a structure to visit. Look for the straightened channel itself as the trace of the bridge's disappearance.

The 1901 Taylor Street Bridge was the first Scherzer rolling lift bascule bridge built in Chicago. Its deck rolled backward on curved tracks to open, unlike the swing bridge it replaced, whose central pivot had obstructed river traffic. The earlier 1890 span reused the structure of the Adams Street Bridge.