Chicago Cable Cars

Chicago Cable Cars PDF Author: Greg Borzo
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 161423759X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 213

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Book Description
When most people hear "cable car" they think "San Francisco." Yet for almost one-quarter of a century Chicago boasted the largest cable car system the world has ever seen, transporting more than one billion riders. This gigantic public work filled residents with pride--and filled robber barons' pockets with money. It also sparked a cable car building boom that spread to twenty-six other U.S. cities. But after twenty-five years, the boom went bust, and Chicago abandoned its cable car system. Today, the fascinating story of the rise and fall of Chicago's cable cars is all but forgotten. Having already written the history of the "L," Greg Borzo guides readers through a stretch of Chicago's transit history that most people never knew existed--even though they have been walking past, riding over and even dining in remnants of it for years. . .

Chicago Cable Cars

Chicago Cable Cars PDF Author: Greg Borzo
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 161423759X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 213

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Book Description
When most people hear "cable car" they think "San Francisco." Yet for almost one-quarter of a century Chicago boasted the largest cable car system the world has ever seen, transporting more than one billion riders. This gigantic public work filled residents with pride--and filled robber barons' pockets with money. It also sparked a cable car building boom that spread to twenty-six other U.S. cities. But after twenty-five years, the boom went bust, and Chicago abandoned its cable car system. Today, the fascinating story of the rise and fall of Chicago's cable cars is all but forgotten. Having already written the history of the "L," Greg Borzo guides readers through a stretch of Chicago's transit history that most people never knew existed--even though they have been walking past, riding over and even dining in remnants of it for years. . .

The Cable Car in America

The Cable Car in America PDF Author: George Woodman Hilton
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780804730525
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 484

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Book Description
The book is a treatise on passenger transport using wire rope traction for carriers operating on rail, popularly cable cars or street railways. The system is described. There are extensive photographs and drawings of components, particularly, carriers, grips, brakes, stationary drives, and the haulage ropes. System design, construction, operation and maintenance are covered in detail along with the powerhouses and drive machinery. Cable car economics is covered for principal cities in America. Fully illustrated with photographs and drawings. Bibliography. (CFD).

World's Columbian Exposition

World's Columbian Exposition PDF Author: Daniel Hudson Burnham
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : World's Columbian Exposition
Languages : en
Pages : 122

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Book Description


The Loop

The Loop PDF Author: Patrick T. Reardon
Publisher: SIU Press
ISBN: 0809338114
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 313

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Book Description
The structure that anchors Chicago Every day Chicagoans rely on the loop of elevated train tracks to get to their jobs, classrooms, or homes in the city’s downtown. But how much do they know about the single most important structure in the history of the Windy City? In engagingly brisk prose, Patrick T. Reardon unfolds the fascinating story about how Chicago’s elevated Loop was built, gave its name to the downtown, helped unify the city, saved the city’s economy, and was itself saved from destruction in the 1970s. This unique volume combines urban history, biography, engineering, architecture, transportation, culture, and politics to explore the elevated Loop’s impact on the city’s development and economy and on the way Chicagoans see themselves. The Loop rooted Chicago’s downtown in a way unknown in other cities, and it protected that area—and the city itself—from the full effects of suburbanization during the second half of the twentieth century. Masses of data underlie new insights into what has made Chicago’s downtown, and the city as a whole, tick. The Loop features a cast of colorful Chicagoans, such as legendary lawyer Clarence Darrow, poet Edgar Lee Masters, mayor Richard J. Daley, and the notorious Gray Wolves of the Chicago City Council. Charles T. Yerkes, an often-demonized figure, is shown as a visionary urban planner, and engineer John Alexander Low Waddell, a world-renowned bridge creator, is introduced to Chicagoans as the designer of their urban railway. This fascinating exploration of how one human-built structure reshaped the social and economic landscape of Chicago is the definitive book on Chicago’s elevated Loop.

Chicago River Bridges

Chicago River Bridges PDF Author: Patrick T. McBriarty
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
ISBN: 0252097254
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 346

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Book Description
Chicago River Bridges presents the untold history and development of Chicago's iconic bridges, from the first wood footbridge built by a tavern owner in 1832 to the fantastic marvels of steel, concrete, and machinery of today. It is the story of Chicago as seen through its bridges, for it has been the bridges that proved critical in connecting and reconnecting the people, industry, and neighborhoods of a city that is constantly remaking itself. In this book, author Patrick T. McBriarty shows how generations of Chicagoans built (and rebuilt) the thriving city trisected by the Chicago River and linked by its many crossings. The first comprehensive guidebook of these remarkable features of Chicago's urban landscape, Chicago River Bridges chronicles more than 175 bridges spanning 55 locations along the Main Channel, South Branch, and North Branch of the Chicago River. With new full-color photography of the existing bridges by Kevin Keeley and Laura Banick and more than one hundred black and white images of bridges past, the book unearths the rich history of Chicago's downtown bridges from the Michigan Avenue Bridge to the often forgotten bridges that once connected thoroughfares such as Rush, Erie, Taylor, and Polk Streets. Throughout, McBriarty delivers new research into the bridges' architectural designs, engineering innovations, and their impact on Chicagoans' daily lives. Describing the structure and mechanics of various kinds of moveable bridges (including vertical-lift, Scherer rolling lift, and Strauss heel trunnion mechanisms) in a manner that is accessible and still satisfying to the bridge aficionado, he explains how the dominance of the "Chicago-style" bascule drawbridge influenced the style and mechanics of bridges worldwide. Interspersed throughout are the human dramas that played out on and around the bridges, such as the floods of 1849 and 1992, the cattle crossing collapse of the Rush Street Bridge, or Vincent "The Schemer" Drucci's Michigan Avenue Bridge jump. A confluence of Chicago history, urban design, and engineering lore, Chicago River Bridges illustrates Chicago's significant contribution to drawbridge innovation and the city's emergence as the drawbridge capital of the world. It is perfect for any reader interested in learning more about the history and function of Chicago's many and varied bridges. The introduction won The Henry N. Barkhausen Award for original research in the field of Great Lakes maritime history sponsored by the Association for Great Lakes Maritime History.

A History Lover's Guide to Chicago

A History Lover's Guide to Chicago PDF Author: Greg Borzo
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 1439673985
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
Founded next to a great lake and a sluggish river, Chicago grew faster than any city ever has. Splendid department stores created modern retailing, and the skyscraper was invented to handle the needs of booming businesses in an increasingly concentrated downtown. The stockyards fed the world, and railroads turned the city into the nation's transportation hub. A great fire leveled the city, but Chicago rose again. Glorious museums, churches and theaters sprang up. Explore a missile site that became a bird sanctuary and discover how Chicago's first public library came to be located in an abandoned water tank. Follow the steps of business leaders and society dames, anarchists and army generals, and learn whose ashes were surreptitiously sprinkled over Wrigley Field. Combining years of research and countless miles of guided tours, author Greg Borzo pursues Chicago's sweeping historical arc through its fascinating nooks and crannies.

Chicago: America's Railroad Capital

Chicago: America's Railroad Capital PDF Author: Brian Solomon
Publisher: Voyageur Press (MN)
ISBN: 0760346038
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 189

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Book Description
"A history of the development of Chicago as a railroad hub, from its earliest days to the present, illustrated with color and black and white photographs, maps, and railroad memorabilia"--

The Street Railway Journal

The Street Railway Journal PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Electric railroads
Languages : en
Pages : 372

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Book Description


Chicago Trolleys

Chicago Trolleys PDF Author: David Sadowski
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 1467126810
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 128

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Book Description
Chicago's extensive transit system first started in 1859, when horsecars ran on rails in city streets. Cable cars and electric streetcars came next. Where new trolley car lines were built, people, businesses, and neighborhoods followed. Chicago quickly became a world-class city. At its peak, Chicago had over 3,000 streetcars and 1,000 miles of track--the largest such system in the world. By the 1930s, there were also streamlined trolleys and trolley buses on rubber tires. Some parts of Chicago's famous "L" system also used trolley wire instead of a third rail. Trolley cars once took people from the Loop to such faraway places as Aurora, Elgin, Milwaukee, and South Bend. A few still run today.

Building Chicago's Subways

Building Chicago's Subways PDF Author: David Sadowski
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 1467129380
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 128

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Book Description
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, would overcome 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. 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. Building Chicago's subways was national news and a matter of considerable civic pride--making it a "Second City" no more