19-Oct-14 – It is a rare sight – five bridges on the Chicago River were raised at the same time on Saturday.

The bridges at Dearborn Street, State Street, Wabash Avenue, Michigan Avenue, and Columbus Drive were raised at about 7:40 a.m. to let a very low-flying helicopter fly through. The 1990 Aerospatiale AS355F2 twin-engine helicopter, owned by Heli Motion of Joliet, was filming for the movie Insurgent, or what the production company, Puck Productions, calls Mineral. It is the sequel to Divergent.

The bridges stayed up for a scheduled bridge lift that allowed sailboats to get from Lake Michigan to winter storage. (Left) Albert Bartkus captured this view from Marina City’s west tower observation deck, showing the State Street, Wabash Avenue, Michigan Avenue, and Columbus Drive bridges raised. (Below) The bridges at Wabash Avenue, Michigan Avenue, and Columbus Drive are raised in this image by Steven Dahlman.

On August 25, 2013, the bridges at Dearborn Street, State Street, and Wabash Avenue were raised to accommodate a low-flying helicopter filming for Transformers 4. The same stunt was performed on August 21, 2010, with the Michigan Avenue, Wabash Avenue, and State Street bridges raised for a six-second shot that made it into the previous Transformers sequel.

(Above) Jim Phillips caught this view from the Clark Street Bridge, which was not raised, showing the raised bridges at Dearborn, State, and Wabash.

Filming continues on Sunday morning on the north side of the Loop. Between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m., a helicopter will fly low over four square blocks – Lake Street between Wabash Avenue and Michigan Avenue, and Michigan Avenue between Lake Street and Wacker Place.