Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
62
Fun Facts
Sky Train: Chicago's El
It's a rare Hollywood film or TV series set in the Windy City that doesn't frame
its stars against that most ar chetypal of Chicago images: the cit y's elevated
train sy stem, mor e c ommonly k nown as the
“El.”
But the orig in of the El
has nothing t o do with its c elebrated gritty, rumbling, rail-screeching urban
aesthetic.
Chicago made a miraculous recovery after the Great Fire of 1871—within 20
years, a sea of neighborhoods appear ed on f ormer prairies and swamps , and
the downtown district overflowed with people, streetcars, wagons, horses, and
horse droppings. The boom cr eated two problems: It was har d to get do wn-
town quickly in the pr e-automobile era, and onc e you got do wntown, it was
impossible to actually move around.
So Chicago t ook t o the sk y, building a sy stem of elevat ed trains 15 f eet
above all the madness. The South Side line (part of today's Green Line) was the
first, opening in 1892 and running t o 39th Str eet, about 5 miles south fr om
downtown; the following year, the line was extended to Jackson Park, bringing
commuters to the World's Fair. In 1893, the Lake Street line (also part of today's
Green Line) began running t o the West Side, and the M etropolitan West Side
Elevated (par t of t oday's Blue Line , ser ving the Nor thwest and West sides)
opened in 1895.
The first El trains on the S outh Side and Lake Str eet lines were steam-pow-
ered, but the Metropolitan West Side Line debuted with a newfangled electric
style of train. The cleaner, quieter trains w ere a hit, and the other El lines f ol-
lowed the West Side's lead. In 1896, the Lake Street Line started using electric-
ity, and the S outh Side Line got wir ed in 1898. These lines w ere run b y
competing companies, and each line had its o wn terminal on the outsk irts of
downtown; so c ommuters still had t o negotiat e the traffic and the filth of
downtown streets once they got off the train.
In 1895, the three El companies collaborated to build a set of tracks into and
around the central business district that all the lines would then share. By 1897,
the “Loop” was up and running , but it would take almost 100 y ears before the
“El” would connect the whole city.
Chicago's El wasn 't the nation 's first. That honor belongs t o New York City,
which started running its elevated trains in 1867, 25 years before Chicago. But
the New York El has almost disappear ed, mo ving under ground and turning
into a subway early last c entury. With 289 miles of track , Chicago has the big-
gest El in the country, and the second-largest public transportation system.
2
BY TAXI
I don 't r ecommend taking taxis with
are a pr etty affordable way to get ar ound
the Loop and to get to the dining, shop-
ping, and enter tainment options found
beyond do wntown, such as on the near
North S ide, in O ld Town and Lincoln
infants and v ery y oung childr en because
unless the taxi is a ne w model, y ou may
not be able to latch y our car seat in the
back. With older childr en, however, taxis
