Actually, this is a staircase, and not a bridge; but I couldn't resist that title. The staircase in question leads down from a high school parking lot to a pedestrian path along the Chicago River near Kimball Avenue in the Albany Park area of the city. Normally, it would be a 14 step trip down to the asphalt path that winds its way through a roughly 60 foot wide semi-wooded plateau above the north bank of the river. A nicely scenic walk, unless it floods, which does on a fairly regular basis during wet spells. Even then, though, it's usually passable, if a bit hard on the shoes. Chicago has had an unseasonably cool and wet spring thus far, and area rivers were already approaching flood stage. Last Wednesday, a massive storm dropped 5 inches of rain on the area and all those already swollen rivers breached their banks and massive flooding ensued. Among the hardest hit areas in the city was Albany Park where river water filled basements and blocked off streets. I live in Albany Park, and though my street wasn't flooded, the water did come within about 100 feet of it. Initially ignorant of all this, I woke up Thursday morning to the loud clatter of heavy machinery, and went outside to investigate. There I found the aforementioned heavy machinery, scores of city workers in yellow rain slickers, platoons of cops directing people and cars away from the river, hastily made barricades, and a truly mind boggling amount of water. Naturally, I had to go out and make pictures of it. This, as I mentioned earlier, is a staircase that would normally lead to a path along the river. Last Thursday, it was part of the river.