60 feet north of the river and 60 feet down, water was leaking into three caissons. Along with tons of soil, the water had to be pumped out. Unfortunately, this drained an area under the north side of the Dearborn Street bridge that was being constructed, causing it to sink eight inches in February 1962.

Engineers were afraid the foundation at 320 North Dearborn (now The Westin Chicago River North hotel) might be affected, too. This was despite a schedule being worked out between the two construction projects a year earlier.

City Engineer Dick Van Gorp asked BGA to stop pumping and find another way to finish the caissons. He was worried utility lines and a cofferdam (used to create a dry work space) near the bridge would be in danger if pumping continued.

It was the latest problem for the new bridge. Already a year late, work had stopped three times and the city finally stopped guessing when it would be finished.

Photo (circa 1961) showing both Marina City and Dearborn Street bridge under construction.

Six injured in second accident

A second accident in the east tower on June 19, 1962 injured seven workers. A gear shaft holding a construction hoist broke, causing it to fall ten stories.

Although a common practice, the deputy city building commissioner said using the hoist to carry passengers violated city code. Sidney Smith conceded, however, it was the only practical way of getting workers to upper levels, and installing temporary elevators “would make construction costs more exorbitant than they already are.”

A permit had been issued for a temporary material hoist, but it was specified it would not be used to carry passengers.

One of those passengers was Mayor Richard J. Daley, who revealed two days after the accident that he had ridden the material hoist at Marina City and a number of other construction sites.

Still, use of the hoist in both towers was halted. Workers had to be driven up the garage ramp to the 19th floor. They walked the rest of the way, sometimes as far as the 42nd floor.

The next week, a permanent passenger elevator was in service.

The two workers most seriously injured in the fall, Harry Epps, age 36, and Edward Torba, 41, suffered spinal injuries. Epps was partially paralyzed. William Higgins, 29, and Frank La Bruno, 28, a salesman for a company called Speed Fast, each sustained a spinal fracture and leg injuries. Harry Johnson, the 49-year-old operator of the hoist, received leg and chest injuries. Edward Reilly, 38, suffered leg and internal injuries.

Johnson was the first victim to file a lawsuit, less than a month later, asking for $500,000 from James McHugh Construction Company. Eventually, Marina City Building Corporation, Bertrand Goldberg Associates, Brighton Construction Company, and three other contractors would be named as defendants.

On August 6, a new city ordinance took effect permitting use of temporary passenger elevators in high-rise apartment buildings during construction. This was intended to discourage use of material hoists to transport workers. In fact, Building Commissioner George Ramsey said his department would report to police any such use of material hoists. Ramsey was out-voted by Mayor Daley, who announced three days before the ordinance took effect that the city would not be enforcing the ban on workers riding construction hoists. Instead, the hoists would be inspected twice each day, and the project’s insurance company would certify to the city that the hoist is safe. Daley made this decision after meeting with officials of the Builders Association of Chicago, who said the ban would shut down construction on 52 high-rise buildings. After months of negotiation, a settlement was reached out-of-court on November 30, 1964, for $637,500 ($4.2 million in 2007 dollars), one of the largest out-of-court settlements in Chicago at that time. (Left) Photograph the next day in the Chicago Tribune

Marina City makes the society page

The first mention of Marina City by a society editor was on July 13, 1962, when Eleanor Page Voysey (1914-2002) wrote in the Chicago Daily Tribune about John T. Beatty and his wife, Mrs. John T. Beatty. The bridal dinner on September 7 would be the last big party at their spacious home in Winnetka. They would soon be moving to an apartment at Marina City with “a southeast view from one of the top floors.”

Friends of the Beattys, according to Eleanor, were divided in opinion “on how such a completely surburban gardening-type family will make the change to urban living.”

(Left) This photograph from the early 1960s by Hedrich-Blessing, obtained from Chicago History Museum, shows the architectural model of Marina City and two unknown admirers.