Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume I

360 ENGINEERING WONDERS OF THE WORLD. The Need of the System. tion, found its freight traffic congested more than its passenger. With no fewer than twenty-five trunk lines run- ning into the city, Chicago’s freight tonnage traffic is enor- mous, and this is confined within a comparatively small area—not more than a mile and a half square. In this dis- trict teamsters’ trucks and wagons constantly block the way—or rather did so before the advent of the underground railway, and caused such congestion of traffic that business was often paralyzed for hours at a time. The city authorities were at a loss to know what to do. It was impossible to change the termini of the trunk lines, and the traffic was often happens, it was left to private enter- prise to find a solution—in the construction of a freight subway. Imagine for a moment what such a railway would mean to London, or to any other large city, and you may grasp how it has virtually revolutionized the street traffic of this western American city. All the goods and . parcels for a great warehouse would be delivered right into its basements by the underground railway having connections with the leading railway depots. In the same way the various post offices would send their mails from one office to another by this route. The great stores would deliver a large portion of their goods by the subterranean road ; while all the FOUR-WAY INTERSECTION AT DEARBORN AND WASHINGTON STREETS. doubling itself every decade. For two years or more the municipality discussed ways of relieving the condition of the streets, but, as coals for the hotels on the line of route would be conveyed to them by rail, and the ashes and gar- bage removed in the same expeditious manner.