Anthony Bocconcelli Collection/FitzSimons & Connell Dredge & Dock Company records

The FitzSimons and Connell Dredge and Dock Company of Chicago, Illinois, played a significant role in the development of Chicago’s waterways, transportation access, and public works in the period of the firm’s existence. Gen. Charles FitzSimons, (whose last name is alternatively spelled as Fitzsimmons or Fitzsimons) was a Civil War officer who served with the 21st New York Cavalry, leaving military service in Colorado at the end of the war in 1866. FitzSimons and his partner, Charles J. Connell, established Connell and FitzSimons in 1867 with a mill in Chicago that provided heavy timber frames for railroad construction, including significant contracts in building bridge frames on the Union Pacific Railroad between the North Platte River and Salt Lake City. In the mid-1870’s, the firm responded to the economic turmoil known as the Panic of 1873 when it expanded its bridge building practice, and partnered with Harry Fox, an experienced dock builder in the Chicago area, in the interest of entering the dredge and dock business. Upon Fox’s death, the firm continued under the name of FitzSimons and Connell.

In addition to its significant early bridging contracts, FitzSimons and Connell was a main contractor on the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal dredging project, the largest of its kind at the time. In the early twentieth century, Fitz-Simons and Connell continued its growth in the Chicago bridge business, gaining contracts as the substructure contractor on numerous Bascule style bridges (often referred to as “Chicago bridges” due to their unique design and their identification with the downtown Chicago landscape). Through the middle of the twentieth century, the firm continued its work in the Chicago area, contracting for numerous City of Chicago filtration plant construction projects, beach and park dredge and dock work, and industrial dock and concrete projects.