Cortland Street Drawbridge

Landmark Context

Cortland Street Drawbridge is fixed in the city's landmark record at 1440 W Cortland St. Even in summary form, the record keeps together a construction date of 1902 and credits John Ernst Ericson. Bridgehse reconst. 1982. It was designated on July 24, 1991. Cortland Street Drawbridge keeps movement infrastructure, corridor planning, and how the city organized circulation grounded in a real building even when the public record is brief.

Cortland Street Drawbridge reveals more once fieldwork compares span, alignment, or platform relationships, connections to adjoining streets, rail lines, or water, and later mechanical change or deferred maintenance. Those observations help show how circulation systems stay visible in structure, alignment, and surrounding land use.

Research Starting Points

Cortland Street Drawbridge opens next into engineering records and planning reports, historic maps and photographs, and newspaper coverage of openings, upgrades, and closures. Those materials are usually what turn site observation into a more convincing historical record.

Cortland Street Drawbridge can hold the first facts in place while the larger history catches up.