The expressways had another impact in the 1950s and '60s;
they spawned modern suburbs that sprouted
on former farmland near highway exits.
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To emphasize the feeling of a country life,
developers often laid out suburban streets
on a curving pattern entirely different
from the urban street grid.
This idea of a planned community designed
to look natural was pioneered a century
before the interstates in west-suburban Riverside,
one of American's first planned suburbs.
In 1869, the famous designers of New York's Central Park,
Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, were commissioned
to design a bedroom community on farmland
along the Des Plaines River.
Inspired by a scenic bend in the river,
Olmsted and Vaux created sinuous streets
that wind through a pastoral landscape.
They mandated that homes be set back
from the street creating the all-American front lawn.
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What made this first generation
of American suburbs possible?
It was the railroad.
So-called railroad suburbs popped up all around Chicago
in the 19th century, allowing city workers
to sleep each night in the country,
at least those who could afford it.
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Even areas that are now part
of the city were rural retreats in the 1800s.
Like Auburn Park, with its scenic lagoon, a remnant
of the wetland that was drained to develop the community
in the late 1800s.
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Today it offers a welcome respite in Auburn Gresham,
a neighborhood with a strong community organization
working hard to recover from decades
of population loss and disinvestment.
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Norwood Park on the northwest side was envisioned
as a resort area back in the 1860s.
The center of the subdivision is a perfect oval.
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Even the alleys.
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The most surprising subdivision out here
is buried in a forest
along the Chicago River's meandering North Branch.
Old Edgebrook was built in the 1890s for officials
of a nearby railroad.
But plans to build a larger commuter suburb here fizzled.
The undeveloped land was bought by the Forest Preserves
in 1918, leaving this unusual urban island.
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In the 1950s, several developers
built suburban-style subdivisions within the city,
like Scottsdale in Ashburn, built on the site
of Chicago's first airport, Ashburn Flying Field,
which lost most of its business
after nearby Midway took off.
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Jeffrey Manor and Merrionette Manor
in South Deering were developed
for returning World War II veterans,
many Jewish, who worked in nearby factories.
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Today, its majority African American.
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