Day 114: Powerhouse Building

Posted on April 25, 2011 by eaj81

Here is a photo of the Powerhouse Building located on the corner of Lake and Clinton.  The building is a Beaux Arts-style building. It is listed in National Register of Historic Places and is designated as a landmark building by the City of Chicago.

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Day 113: Skyline

Posted on April 24, 2011 by eaj81

This photo was taken from the Adler Planetarium which is one of my favorite places to grab shots of the city skyline.  This image was taken with a Canon PowerShot- although not the best image quality, I still really like this one.

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Day 112: The City at Night

Posted on April 23, 2011 by eaj81

This was taken from the Lower Wacker Drive pedestrian bridge.  It’s great how it shows the city at night, with the buildings lit up and the reflection in the Chicago River.

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Day 111: The Scales

Posted on April 22, 2011 by eaj81

This is a close up photo of the BP Pedestrian Bridge.  It’s texture is much like that of the scales of a snake.

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Day 110: Railing

Posted on April 21, 2011 by eaj81

This is a shot of the railing that leads up to the Chicago Street entrance to the Chicago Water Works building just East of Michigan Avenue. 

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Day 109: In Memory

Posted on April 20, 2011 by eaj81

Remember those firefighters who make the supreme sacrafice in the performace of their duties.  This photo was taken of a memorial to Lt Edmond P. Coglianese and is located outside of the Engine Co. 98 firehouse.

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Day 108: Emerging Trucks

Posted on April 19, 2011 by eaj81

This photo was taken at the loading dock of the Old Chicago Main Post Office.  It reminds me of how busy of a hub the post office was to Chicago, with mail coming in and leaving in large volumes.

Perhaps it was the sign that should have watched for emerging trucks…

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Day 107: Fire Alarm Box

Posted on April 18, 2011 by eaj81

This is a photo of a fire alarm box outside of Engine Co. 98 on Chicago Ave.  

A fire alarm box is an outdoor device used for notifying a fire department of a fire. The first practical fire alarm system was developed by Dr. William Channing and Moses G. Farmer in 1852 and used the telegraph system as the main method of calling the fire department to a neighborhood in the days before people had telephones. When the box is triggered, a spring-loaded wheel spins and taps out a signal onto the fire alarm telegraph wire, indicating the box number. The receiver at a fire station then can match the number to the neighborhood. The boxes are a form of street furniture still in service in many places, though many towns and cities are now questioning whether they are worth the cost to maintain since almost all households have telephone service and most people carry mobile phones.  However, many people maintain that the systems provide a necessary lifeline and can serve as a backup to other systems in the case of power and telephone outages or other disasters such as September 11, 2001 when cell phone service for a large part of New York city was knocked out.

Click here for a list of cities with operating fire alarm boxes.

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Day 106: Harrison Street Bridge

Posted on April 17, 2011 by eaj81

This is one of the newest of Chicago’s bascule bridges, with a 1960 construction date.  It continues to use the the combination deck-pony truss design that had been in use in Chicago since 1922. The bridge’s truss details are nearly identical in appearance to the earlier examples. That a truss bridge design was used with little changes over a period of 38 years is remarkable and is testimony to the effectiveness of the design. It’s 279 feet long and the roadway if 44 feet wide. This bridge was documented as a historic bridge in August 2006.

This is a shot of the Harrison Street bridge from the pedestrian walkway facing west while the sun was setting.  It caught my eye and I thought it would make for a great photo.

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Day 105: Into The Mist

Posted on April 16, 2011 by eaj81

This photo was taken along the lakefront path just north of Chicago Ave late in the day while the fog was still low and covering the city.  Usually you can see the rest of the breakwater in the water but with the fog it’s lost in the mist.

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