History By Design: Two beautiful bridges, hidden in plain sight

Frank Lloyd Wright and Prairie-style landscape architect Jens Jensen designed bridges that are little known but well worth a visit. 

Wright designed only two bridges in his career: one accessing Fallingwater, the 1936 Edgar Kaufmann House in Pennsylvania, and one in Glencoe.

His Sylvan Road Bridge, near Franklin Road, was built for Wright’s attorney Sherman Booth to access the Ravine Bluffs Subdivision. The enclave consisted of a large Prairie home for Booth, five small spec houses based on Wright’s 1907 design for a small fireproof house for $5,000, and three entrance sculptures.

Wright’s work for Booth came at an important time. In 1909 he left for Germany to oversee the publication of his work, taking with him Mamah Borthwick Cheney, the wife of one of his clients. Upon his return, Wright had only a few projects in his office. The Booth commission helped restore his career.

Ravine Bluffs is the only collection of Frank Lloyd Wright houses on the North Shore.

Wright’s 1914 bridge design was a simple arched structure, built of concrete with steel reinforcing rods and wire mesh, spanning a shallow ravine. Only one lane, it was 80 feet long and 30 feet wide with a sidewalk on the north side, a 10-foot bench and broad urns with a circular planting bowl and tall lamps at each end of the bridge. 

The simple horizontal lines of the bridge are very much in the Prairie spirit.

By the 1970s, the bridge had deteriorated to such a degree that it became closed to traffic. Studies showed that it was beyond repair. Thanks to financial support from the Village Board and from a fundraising campaign by nearby residents, a replica following Wright’s original design was built in 1984.

Sometime after 1912, Jens Jensen designed a concrete bridge with stone facing that spanned a ravine in a wooded section of the summer estate of Julius Rosenwald in Highland Park. 

With a rustic appearance, the horizontal layering of the stone is reminiscent of stone outcroppings in central Wisconsin. Jensen was enamored with the area’s native prairie landscape that featured open meadows, meandering rivers, native plant material, rock formations, and natural curving roads and paths.

The road leading to the bridge begins at what is today Rosewood Park (an Anglicization of Rosenwald), where the Rosenwalds’ house (demolished) was situated.

At the west end of the property, a curving path following the contour of the ravine leads down to the bridge, which led to adjacent large summer residences of the Rosenwalds’ adult children and their families.

Today the bridge is blocked off but the path, lined by wildflowers, leads to a beautiful beach. The property is owned by the Park District of Highland Park and is listed on the National Register. 

Julius Rosenwald was president of Sears, Roebuck and Co. He was one of the country’s leading businessmen and philanthropists. He founded the Museum of Science & Industry and funded Black schools in the south and African American YMCAs. He also was a leading member of the Jewish community.

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