Clark Street Bridge Bride & Groom

Wedding party crossing Clark St. Bridge, Chicago

This photo was taken a few years ago in the early evening of early fall in downtown Chicago. It's of a very small wedding party leaving Clark Street Bridge over the Chicago River. The party was having pictures taken on the bridge with some of Chicago's skyline in the background. I had tried to get a picture of the group when they were still posing in the middle of the bridge, but I wasn't fast enough. So I got them walking away.

I like this picture because of a little details that were caught, like the bride taking care to keep the train of her dress off the sidewalk of the bridge and the fact that the bride is the central person in the frame and the most identifiable. The others in the photo are a bit of a guess. I'm guessing one of the men on the bride's right is her groom...but which one? Is the other the best man? Of the two people on the bride's left, either could be the photographer. The man in the gray jacket seems to be providing direction, pointing out the spot where the group should stop and pose next. So maybe he's the photographer. But it's the other woman in the photo, the blonde with a ponytail and wearing a suit, who appears to be holding the professional camera. So maybe the blonde with the ponytail is the photographer...or could she be an unconventionally attired maid of honor?

I also like that some of the walkway of the bridge can be seen--maybe too much to make it a good photo by most standards. But you can see the steel grid that underlies the walkway, which adds a bit of grit to the scene, a bit of the toughness and distinctiveness of Chicago. This is not a fairy-tale wedding scene. Chicago is not a city that harbors fairy tales. And a wedding party as small and straightforward as the one in this photo appears to be doesn't seem to have time or interest for complicated fairy-tale photo set-ups anyway.

Clark Street Bridge is a bascule bridge, or a drawbridge, which means it goes up and down every now and again. (Even a bridge sometimes feels the need for a break and a stretch.) Along with other bridges on the Chicago River downtown, such as the Lasalle Street Bridge, it is known for its dark red curving trusses. Glimpses of Chicago's bridges can be seen in many movies, from Batman Begins and The Dark Knight to The Untouchables, Road to Perdition, The Fugitive, and Transformers. The poet Carl Sandburg also was inspired by Clark Street Bridge (albeit an earlier version of the current one), as he was by many places in Chicago--he titled one of his poems after the bridge, and you can read it here. "Dust of the feet/ And dust of the wheels..." And once a bride tried to keep her dress out of the mess of dust and feet and wheels...

Clark Street Bridge being raised, with Dearborn Street Bridge in foreground & Lasalle Street Bridge way at the back

Clark Street Bridge at night