Building Chicago's Subways

Building Chicago's Subways PDF

Author: David Sadowski

Publisher: Arcadia Publishing

Published: 2018-10-01

Total Pages: 128

ISBN-13: 1439665036

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Take a trip underground and see how Chicago's "I Will" spirit overcame challenges and persevered to help with the successful building of the subways that move millions today! While the elevated Chicago Loop is justly famous as a symbol of the city, the fascinating history of its subways is less well known. The City of Chicago broke ground on what would become the "Initial System of Subways" during the Great Depression and finished 20 years later. This gigantic construction project, a part of the New Deal, overcame many obstacles while tunneling through Chicago's soft blue clay, under congested downtown streets, and even beneath the mighty Chicago River. Chicago's first rapid transit subway opened in 1943 after decades of wrangling over routes, financing, and logistics. It grew to encompass the State Street, Dearborn-Milwaukee, and West Side Subways, with the latter modernizing the old Garfield Park "L" into the median of Chicago's first expressway. Building Chicago's subways was national news and a matter of considerable civic pride - making it a "Second City" no more!

722 Miles

722 Miles PDF

Author: Clifton Hood

Publisher: JHU Press

Published: 2004-08-23

Total Pages: 356

ISBN-13: 9780801880544

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When it first opened on October 27, 1904, the New York City subway ran twenty-two miles from City Hall to 145th Street and Lenox Avenue—the longest stretch ever built at one time. From that initial route through the completion of the IND or Independent Subway line in the 1940s, the subway grew to cover 722 miles—long enough to reach from New York to Chicago. In this definitive history, Clifton Hood traces the complex and fascinating story of the New York City subway system, one of the urban engineering marvels of the twentieth century. For the subway's centennial the author supplies a new foreward explaining that now, after a century, "we can see more clearly than ever that this rapid transit system is among the twentieth century's greatest urban achievements."

Chicago's Lost "L"s

Chicago's Lost

Author: David Sadowski

Publisher: Arcadia Publishing

Published: 2021-07-12

Total Pages: 128

ISBN-13: 1439672911

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Chicago's system of elevated railways, known locally as the "L," has run continuously since 1892 and, like the city, has never stood still. It helped neighborhoods grow, brought their increasingly diverse populations together, and gave the famous Loop its name. But today's system has changed radically over the years. Chicago's Lost "L"s tells the story of former lines such as Garfield Park, Humboldt Park, Kenwood, Stockyards, Normal Park, Westchester, and Niles Center. It was once possible to take high-speed trains on the L directly to Aurora, Elgin, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The L started out as four different companies, two starting out using steam engines instead of electricity. Eventually, all four came together via the Union Loop. The L is more than a way of getting around. Its trains are a place where people meet and interact. Some say the best way to experience the city is via the L, with its second-story view. Chicago's Lost "L"s is virtually a "secret history" of Chicago, and this is your ticket.

The Chicago "L"

The Chicago

Author: Greg Borzo

Publisher: Arcadia Publishing

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 172

ISBN-13: 0738551007

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Offers a history of the world famous Chicago "L," the elevated railroad that has operated since 1892 and has been ridden by more than ten billion people.

Report

Report PDF

Author: Chicago. Department of Subways and Superhighways

Publisher:

Published: 1946

Total Pages: 568

ISBN-13:

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Report for 1939 consists of reports of the Dept. of Subways and Traction and Dept. of Superhighways.

Building the Canal to Save Chicago

Building the Canal to Save Chicago PDF

Author: Richard Lanyon

Publisher: Lake Claremont Press: A Chicago Joint

Published: 2012-04

Total Pages: 386

ISBN-13: 9781893121713

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Winner of the 2013 Abel Wolman Award for Best New Book in Public Works History. To reverse the flow of a river wouldn't be possible today, but to Chicago near the end of the nineteenth century it became a matter of survival. On the shores of Lake Michigan, connected to the Great Lakes system, with the Chicago River and easy waterway access to the expanding American West, Chicago had much that was ideal in the way of water for a burgeoning metropolis in the 1800s. It also had a flat topography and poor drainage. As the city swelled, railroads replaced water transport, the population surged, and the lake served both as water supply and sewage repository. The Chicago River became overwhelmed with the commerce of a port city and its residents' sewage. It stank at times. Deadly, waterborne diseases were spreading. Flooding from the interior tore through the city to get to the lake. What to do? Without sewage treatment, it was decided to breach a subcontinental divide, send the sewage away, and save the lake. The idea received legislative approval with the promise of a navigable canal. In the largest municipal earth-moving project ever at that point--an engineering marvel and a monumental public works success--the flow of the Chicago River was turned away from Lake Michigan in 1900. Chicago's own shoulder-to-the-wheel determination made it work. Author Richard Lanyon is the former executive director of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago. Heavily illustrated with historic photos.

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