“The Chicago Department of Transportation will restore Jackson Park’s condemned Darrow Bridge based on its 1895 design and reopen it, but agency officials said the process could take a couple of years.

“This wasn’t the first time CDOT has given the park advisory council a timeline for the bridge’s repair. Since the Darrow Bridge was declared unsafe and closed to pedestrian and bicycle traffic in the fall of 2013, city officials have presented restoration plans on four different occasions to JPAC, all of which have promised to fix up the bridge within two or so years. These plans have included proposals to replace the structure with an entirely new bridge or to repair the existing bridge with changes.

“The June 2 JPAC meeting, however, marked the first time that restoring the bridge to its 1895 form was proposed by CDOT as the goal for its repair.

“‘This is the most historic structure I have ever worked on,’ Tanera Adams, a CDOT project manager said. ‘We’re (restoring) basically what’s there but making it more safe.’

“The total budget for the project isn’t public. Adams did say that CDOT has all the money it needs for construction — the 2022-2026 Capital Budget for the City of Chicago earmarked $14,265,000 for the rehabilitation of the ‘Columbia Bridge in Jackson Park’ — but can’t access it immediately. Because that money was set aside for an earlier iteration of rehabilitation plans, Adams said contracts need to be revised before the department can get access to those funds for the new, preservation-focused plans.

“The Darrow Bridge was built in 1880 and repurposed in 1895 after the World’s Columbian Exposition. The bridge got its vernacular name a little more than four decades later, after the death of the famed lawyer Clarence Darrow, who was known to pace around on it, practicing his oratory on the fish in the lagoon.

“Over the next few decades, the bridge fell into disrepair; as far back as 1968, community members have written letters to the Hyde Park Herald urging the city to fix it up. In 2014, restoration efforts formalized when JPAC began circulating a petition demanding the city repair it.

“News of the bridge’s potential preservation comes just a few months after it landed on Preservation Chicago’s annual list of the city’s ‘most endangered’ historic sites for the first time.

“‘It’s very encouraging that they are going to shoot for the highest preservation standards,’ said Jack Spicer, a member of JPAC’s Darrow Bridge Committee, after the meeting.

“The plan for historical preservation of the bridge, the email continues, prioritizes repairing and reusing historic materials, such as limestone blocks, railings and uprights to restore it to its 1895 appearance.” (Monaghan, Hyde Park Herald, 6/18/25)

Preservation Chicago has been concerned about the deteriorating condition of the Clarence Darrow Memorial Bridge / Columbia Bridge and have advocated, along with local preservation partners such as the Clarence Darrow Bridge Coalition and Hyde Park Historical Society, for the historic sensitive restoration for the bridge for over 20 years. We are encouraged by CDOT’s current restoration direction, but we will stay closed engaged with the effort throughout the process. We have seen many false starts over the past decade. Additionally, its important that final restoration design reflects the stated historic goals.

Read the full story at Hyde Park Herald

• City says Darrow Bridge will be preserved, but it might take years, Marc Monaghan, Hyde Park Herald, 6/18/25
•  Darrow Bridge named one of Preservation Chicago’s ‘most endangered’ structures, Hyde Park Herald staff, Hyde Park Herald, 3/12/25
• Hyde Park Stories: Darrow Bridge, Patricia L. Morse, Hyde Park Herald, 3/6/23
• Clarence Darrow Memorial Bridge / Columbia Bridge, a Preservation Chicago 2025 Chicago 7 Most Endangered