The Chain of Rocks Bridge, Chouteau Island, Illinois.

Chain of Rocks Bridge is one of the more interesting bridges in America. It’s hard to forget a 30-degree turn midway across a mile-long bridge that is more than 60 feet above the mighty Mississippi. For more than three decades, the bridge was a significant landmark for travelers driving Route 66.

The bridge’s colorful name came from a 17-mile shoal, or series of rocky rapids, called the Chain of Rocks beginning just north of St. Louis. The eastern end of the bridge is on Chouteau Island, a part of Madison, Illinois while the western end lands on the Missouri shoreline.

Multiple rock ledges just under the surface made this stretch of the Mississippi River extremely dangerous to navigate. In the 1960s, the Corps of Engineers built a low-water dam covering the Chain of Rocks. That’s why you can’t see them today. Back in 1929, at the time of the construction of the bridge, the Chain was a serious concern for boatmen.

A massive undertaking in its day, the Chain of Rocks Bridge had a projected cost of $1,250,000. The bridge was to be a straight, 40-foot wide roadway with five trusses forming 10 spans. Massive concrete piers standing 55 feet above the high-water mark were to support the structure. Plans called for a four-mile fill along the road leading to the bridge’s eastern end.

All that proved true except for one major change, the direction. Riverboat men protested the planned bridge because it was to run near two water intake towers for the Chain of Rocks pumping station. Navigating the bridge piers and the towers at the same time, the river captains argued, would be extremely treacherous for vessels and barges. Besides, the initial straight line would have put the bridge over a section of the river where the bedrock was insufficient to support the weight of the piers. Either way, the bridge had to bend.

Construction started on both sides of the river simultaneously in 1927, and the piers were complete by August of 1928. A grand opening was planned for New Year’s Day 1929. The Mississippi River had other plans. Floods and ice slowed the work, and the Chain of Rocks Bridge finally opened to traffic in July of 1929.

Then, as now, actual expenditures for construction often exceed projected costs. Chain of Rocks Bridge cost just over $2.5 million -- twice its original estimate. Fortunately, the public got its money’s worth. The bridge had beautifully landscaped approaches. A park-like setting around a pool and a large, ornate toll booth anchored the Missouri end. On the Illinois side, 400 elm trees lined the approach. The bridge brought travelers into St. Louis by way of the picturesque Chain of Rocks amusement park on the Missouri hills overlooking the river. On a clear day, crossing the Chain of Rocks Bridge was a real pleasure. That pleasure became an official part of the Route 66 experience in 1936, when the highway was rerouted over the bridge.

During World War II, Chain of Rock’s colorful red sections had to be painted green to make the bridge less visible from the air. At the same time, wartime gas rationing reduced traffic. To offset these costs, the City of Madison increased bridge tolls to 35 cents per car, with an additional five cents per passenger—a fee structure that sets on its head today’s system of special high-speed lanes reserved for cars carrying more, not fewer, people.

In 1967, the New Chain of Rocks Bridge carrying Interstate 270 opened just 2,000 feet upstream of the old bridge, which closed in 1968. The bridge deteriorated, and during the 1970s, Army demolition teams considered blowing it up just for practice. In 1975, demolition seemed imminent. Fortunately for the bridge, a bad market saved the day. The value of scrap steel plummeted, making demolition no longer profitable. At that point, the Chain of Rocks Bridge entered 20 years of bridge limbo--too expensive to tear down, too narrow and outdated to carry modern vehicles. In 1980, film director John Carpenter used the gritty, rusting bridge as a site for his science fiction film, Escape from New York. Otherwise, the bridge was abandoned.

Today you might say that the Chain of Rocks Bridge has completed a historic cycle. Built at the beginning of America’s love affair with the automobile, it is now a reflection of America’s desire not to ride in cars so often. During the 1980s, greenways and pedestrian corridors became increasingly popular, and a group called Trailnet began cleanup and restoration of the bridge.

Linked to more than 300 miles of trails on both sides of the river, the old Chain of Rocks Bridge reopened to the public as part of the Route 66 Bikeway in 1999.

Because the bridge has not been significantly altered over the years, a visit there today conveys a strong sense of time and place, an appreciation for early-20th-century bridge construction, and outstanding views of the wide Mississippi River. 

The Chain of Rocks Bridge was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2006.

National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior.

Lost Towns of Illinois - No-Man's Land, Illinois.

No-Man's Land, Illinois was never an official place name but has been used to refer to at least two areas that fit the broader meaning of No-Man's land.

WILMETTE, ILLINOIS
Most commonly, the term was used to refer to a small unincorporated area north of Chicago on Sheridan Road, along the lakeshore of Lake Michigan.

No Man's Land - Wilmette, Illinois.

It was bordered by the exclusive North Shore suburbs of Wilmette, on the south and west, and by Kenilworth on the north. Undeveloped for nearly a century after the first settlement of the area, no neighboring municipality wanted to annex it, and it became a haven for shady activities.

In the 1920s, a developer envisioned and began construction of a planned club and beach hotel complex to be called "Vista Del Lago" (Spanish for "Lakeview"). The club was under construction on the east side of Sheridan Road, but the Great Depression prevented the completion of the hotel. In 1928, one of the earlier automobile-oriented shopping centers, Spanish Court, opened adjacent to the club. The club burned down in 1932.

The lack of development on the east side of the road, coupled with the club's location in a relatively lawless unincorporated area, led to a state legislator in the 1930s terming No Man's Land "a slot machine and keno sin center where college students were being debauched with beer, hard liquor, and firecrackers." In 1942, after decades of disputed ownership and legal wrangling, the area was annexed by the village of Wilmette. The area is now the home of the Plaza del Lago shopping center on the west side of Sheridan Road and a small number of anomalous high-rise residential buildings east of Sheridan Road.

Plaza Del Lago & high-rise Condo's on Sheridan Road in Wilmette, Illinois.

Prior to the redevelopment of the area in the 60s, such establishments as firework stores, hot dog stands, ice cream shops, car dealerships, and service stations had earned the area nicknames of 'Coney Island of the North Shore' and 'honkey-tonk town of the North Shore'.

ROGERS PARK AREA OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS
The term "No-Man's Land" was used prior to the expansion of Chicago from the property on the south border of Calvary Cemetery in Evanston. It refers to what is now the far north lakefront of the Rogers Park community of Chicago. It is also identified by the United States Geological Survey as being a variant name of the Howard District.

CLICK MAP FOR LARGER VIEW

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

Peacock Ice Cream Company, Evanston, Illinois.

Thomas Anton opened Peacock's Dairy Bar in 1936. In 1956 George Bugelas bought the Dairy Bar overlooking Lake Michigan at 1515 Sheridan Road in Wilmette, in an area known as No-Man's Land. Two years later, he bought the 32-year-old Peacock Ice Cream Company. 

Bugelas was an ice cream aficionado for over thirty years, overseeing every aspect of the Peacock Ice Cream Company. He added ice cream parlors in Evanston and Glencoe. The ice cream factory was in Evanston.

He produced several thousand gallons of premium ice cream a week. The ice cream was made in a factory on Sherman Avenue, then later at 2144 Ashland Avenue, both in Evanston. 

Ice cream maker, Bugelas was ahead of his time, creating his own recipes with 16 percent butterfat, fresh fruit, all-natural ingredients, and no preservatives at a time before premium ice cream was widely available.

Another Peacock store was on Skokie Highway in Wilmette, just north of Old Orchard Shopping Center.

In addition to his specialty flavors, such as the summer's favorite fresh peach, Bugelas created custom flavors for Ravinia, the Drake Hotel, numerous Japanese restaurants other high-end establishments. Beginning in 1976, his chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla ice creams swept all blue-ribbon competitions in the premium ice cream categories at the Illinois State Fair for 13 consecutive years. Bugelas closed all the retail shops in 1981 to concentrate on the wholesale business.

When his wife became ill in 1992, he closed the business rather than risk selling it to someone who might dilute the quality of his ice cream. George Christopher Bugelas died on October 5, 2004.

Visit Our Peacock Ice Cream Souvenir Shop  

INDEX TO MY ILLINOIS AND CHICAGO FOOD & RESTAURANT ARTICLES.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.