The 135th Street bridge, built in 1899 to cross the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, is the only remaining example of this type of bridge in Illinois. It was designed to allow large vessels to pass along the waterway by pivoting on a steel turntable supported by a masonry pier, swinging across the water to the opposite bank. Its two-span design used a longer east span to cross the canal and a shorter west span as the counterweight arm. Steel trusses extended up and over the bridge, and an overhead pilothouse within the trusses controlled its movement. The bridge remained busy and active until it closed in 1990 because of structural problems, after which it was moved to Centennial Trail for preservation.
