About the Museum
The McCormick Tribune Bridgehouse & Chicago River Museum opened June 10, 2006, but the story of its creation begins much earlier.
For years Friends of the Chicago River pursued the idea of using one of the many unique bridgehouses that dot the river for an event. Then, in 2002, the City of Chicago offered Friends the opportunity to lease one of the bridgehouses on the Michigan Avenue Bridge. Intrigued, surprised and thrilled by the possibilities, Friends agreed to lease the bridgehouse for a dollar a year for the next 30 years.
The Bridgehouse Museum is a way to highlight the sometimes forgotten Chicago River and its connection to the development of a world class city…
Friends of the Chicago River, a small grassroots nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the Chicago River for plants, animals and people, saw great potential in the bridgehouse. We saw it as an opportunity to tell the multifaceted, rich story of the Chicago River, from its role during pre-European times to its uses today as a recreational resource, a transportation gateway and a home for wildlife. We also saw it as a way to highlight the sometimes forgotten Chicago River and its intrinsic connection to the development of Chicago as a world class city.
With a naming gift from the McCormick Foundation and gifts from a host of corporations, foundations, families and individuals, the bridgehouse, which had fallen into disrepair since the 1960s when it lasted housed bridge tenders, was transformed into the McCormick Tribune Bridgehouse & Chicago River Museum. Today, it is alive with stories of the past, details of the bridge and vivid stories about the many people inspired by the potential of the Chicago River.
