United States Illinois Chicago Abandoned Industrial Bridge Over River Urban Black And White Photography

This photograph was made from the water, not the sidewalk. Shot from a small boat moving slowly along the Chicago River, the perspective comes from directly beneath the abandoned Chicago & North Western Railway Bridge — a structure most people only ever experience from above, if they notice it at all. From this angle, the bridge stops being infrastructure and becomes something far more intimate.

The frame is a dense web of riveted steel, cross-bracing, ladders, and weathered plates layered in every direction. Nothing here is decorative. Every beam exists for a reason, and that honesty is what gives the image its weight. The bridge is no longer active, but it hasn’t softened with time. Rust gathers along edges, paint flakes away, and the geometry remains uncompromising. In black and white, visual distractions fall away, leaving structure, repetition, and the quiet authority of engineered form.

Downtown Chicago is filled with architecture designed to impress. What draws me to places like this is the opposite. This bridge was built to move freight and industry through the city, not to be admired. From the river, the scale becomes unavoidable. Steel presses overhead. Light filters through gaps in the framework, catching rivets and seams and carving depth from shadow. The sound of the city fades, replaced by the movement of water and the subtle creak of aging metal responding to time and temperature.

This image was created on location from lived experience, navigating the river and positioning the boat to align the structure overhead. It wasn’t imagined or reconstructed later. I personally sign each print and include a certificate of authenticity confirming it as a real photograph, printed and finished by the artist who was there.

Authorship matters here because access matters. You don’t arrive at this view accidentally. Being on the water changes your relationship to the city — familiar structures become unfamiliar again. Beneath the Chicago & North Western Railway Bridge, the city reveals a more honest version of itself, one defined by function, endurance, and material truth rather than polish.

If scenes like this resonate with you, you may also appreciate Chicago Industrial L Train Tracks Downtown.

© Dan Kosmayer, 2024