Ninth Street Seven Arch Stone Bridge - Lockport, IL
Posted by: 
cldisme
N 41° 35.466 W 088° 03.851
16T E 411304 N 4604924
A historic mid-19th Century bridge made obsolete by a 20th Century high bridge.
Waymark Code: WM3EMB
Location: Illinois, United States
Date Posted: 03/24/2008
Views: 36
From the National Register of Historic Places application:
The Ninth Street Seven Arch Stone Bridge is situated in an area originally considered West Lockport, as it was located west of the original town plat and the Illinois and Michigan Canal. West Lockport was platted in 1836, and throughout the nineteenth-century featured a mix of modest workers’ homes and industry, such as Norton & Company’s flour and sawmills. When the Ninth Street Bridge was constructed in 1868-69, it extended westward from Ninth Street, Lockport’s main east-west road, and spanned the Des Plaines River. The bridge was built about two blocks west of Ninth and State Streets, Lockport’s main commercial intersection.
Built of locally quarried dolomite limestone, the Ninth Street Stone Arch Bridge originally featured a high stone parapet. This seven arch bridge is approximately 197 feet long and 23 feet wide. Each of the seven arches is about 23 feet wide, springline-to-springline, with an 8’-6” rise. The structure was constructed with rubble stone and faced with randomly laid limestone blocks. The blocks vary in size from about eight to twelve inches in thickness and are laid up in hydraulic cement.
The bridge is currently closed to traffic when a higher bridge was constructed in 1971 to span the Illinois & Michigan Canal, Deep Run Creek, Des Plaines River, and the Sanitary & Ship Canal without distrupting barge traffic. The 7 Arches Bridge was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004.
Physical Location (city, county, etc.): Lockport, Illinois, USA
Road, Highway, Street, etc.: formerly Ninth Street
Water or other terrain spanned: Deep Run Creek
Architect/Builder: Julius Scheibe
Construction Date: 1868-1869
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