Michigan Avenue Bridge

The Beaux-Arts style, two-level Michigan Avenue Bridge, completed in 1930, was designed by architect Edward Bennett, in the manner of the much-esteemed 1900 Pont Alexandre III, Paris. The bridge's completion led to the development of upper Michigan Avenue to Lake Shore Drive, mostly in the Art Deco style of the era. Seen on the northeast bridge phylon is an epic sculptural relief, "The Discoverers," by artist James Erle Fraser. It shows the seventeenth century French explorers who passed by this point, between the great St. Lawrence and Mississippi River systems. Five notable buildings south of the bridge can be seen, all but one still present. With just a glimpse of its north side close to Michigan Avenue at Wacker Drive is the 333 N. Michigan Avenue Building, designed in the Art Deco style by architects Holabird & Root, 1928. To its right is the now-demolished John Crerar Library building at Randolph Street, by architects Holabird & Roche, 1920. Continuing to the right, or west, is the Art Deco-styled Carbide and Carbon Building, designed by Burnham Brothers, 1929, and recently restored as the Hard Rock Hotel. Next and to the right, at the southwest corner of Michigan and Wacker, is what originally in 1923 was known as the London Guarantee & Accident Building, designed by architect Alfred S. Anschuler. Last, on the right, and known in the past as the Jewellers' Building and the Pure Oil Building, the ornately Beaux-Arts-styled, twenty-four story building at 35 East Wacker is crowned by four corner pavilions around one tall central pilastered tower.