Chicago Tunnel Company
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The Chicago Tunnel Company built a unique freight tunnel network under the downtown of the city of Chicago. It inspired the construction of the London Post Office Railway. The tunnels have been featured in several motion pictures, including The Blues Brothers and The Fugitive.
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[edit] History
Construction of the subway began in 1899, and the full system with a tunnel under almost every street of downtown Chicago was finished in 1906. Six feet wide by seven and a half high (1.8 by 2.3 metres) tunnels were officially constructed to house only telephone cables, but the Illinois Tunnel Company also secretly installed two foot gauge railroad tracks in them.
[edit] Land reclamation
Excavations from tunnel construction were used to fill in Lake Michigan to create land for:
[edit] Experiment
First test trains were run a few years after the start of construction, which locomotives received power from a third rail cog which was situated in a slot between the two running rails, but later it was decided to change the third rail to overhead lines. Tunnel freight cars were delivered to railroad freight stations, warehouses, office buildings, and store buildings via elevators or direct access.
[edit] Operation
In 1912, the Illinois Tunnel Company, daughter of Illinois Telephone and Telegraph Company was reorganized and renamed the Chicago Tunnel Company, and all of the telephone cables from tunnels were removed. Through the years, the system has expanded to approximately 60 miles (97 km) of track, with 149 four wheeled electric locomotives, and over 3000 freight cars in service.
Trucks stole away significant amounts of business, and by the late 1940s, customers began to switch from coal to natural gas to heat their buildings. The ones that kept burning coal switched to delivery by truck because unloading from the surface was easier, and a complex conveyor system was not required.
Even though coal deliveries were made with trucks, it was still more efficient to remove ashes by tunnel. This basically left the company in the ash removal business for the last ten years of operation.
[edit] Closure
Chicago Tunnel Company was declared bankrupt in 1956, the network was closed and abandoned in the summer of 1959. The scrappers removed almost all of the overhead wire and elevators; locomotives and steel freight cars were removed and scrapped as well.
[edit] Disaster
In 1991 near the Kinzie Street bridge, a new set of pilings were driven into the riverbed to prevent barges from bumping into the bridge. As the pillars were installed, a miscalculation was made that caused severe damage to the tunnel directly below the river.
In 1992, a cable television employee in the tunnel underneath the Chicago River videotaped mud and water oozing in where the bottom of the wooden pilings had penetrated the tunnel's roof. Official response was slow; no emergency measures were deemed necessary, and a formal bidding process began for the contract to repair the damage. But in April, a large hole formed in the roof of the tunnel causing the river and huge amounts of mud to pour in. The entire system was quickly flooded in what became known as the Great Chicago Flood, including many skyscraper basements that were still connected to it, causing severe property damage and disrupting utility service throughout the Loop. Many businesses had no idea that they were still connected to the tunnel complex as the openings were boarded up, bricked up, or otherwise closed off - but not waterproof. The accident shut down the entire downtown area for days, causing considerable economic losses. The insurance battles lasted for years, the central point being the definition of the accident. Was it a "flood" or a "leak." Leaks were covered by insurance - floods were not! Eventually it was classified a leak. That's why many residents still call it the "Great Chicago Leak."
At that point, government agencies belatedly responded. The leak was stopped and the tunnels of water were emptied within days (at great cost). The tunnels are still used for power and communication cables. They have been popular with urban exploration groups who sometimes sneak in to have a look around, but after a terrorism scare in the early 2000s involving a deranged former Chicago Urban Exploration member, all access to the tunnels has been secured. [1]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Moffat, Bruce (1982). Forty Feet Below: The Story of Chicago's Freight Tunnels. Interurban Press. ISBN 0-916374-54-8.
