New name for old bridge

22-Oct-10 – (Above) The Wendella sightseeing boat Linnea passes under the newly renamed DuSable Bridge on Friday. The bridge was officially renamed on October 15 to honor Chicago’s first non-native resident, Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable.

An ordinance to rename the bridge was introduced in 2009 by 42nd Ward Alderman Brendan Reilly. In 2006, the city council recognized Point du Sable as Chicago’s founder.

On October 17, 2009, a bronze sculpture of Pointe du Sable was erected just north of the bridge, near Pioneer Court, where the Haitian-born fur trader’s first trading post was located in 1779.

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