chicago's impressive streetcar system sits paved over and almost entirely forgotten but
with thousands of passenger cars and over 1 000 miles of track throughout the city
the surface lines occasionally reappear in the most unexpected places revealing traces
of a monumental time in 1929 alone an estimated 9 million riders rode these lines and by 1935
over 3 700 of the city's iconic red streetcars drove the busy streets with ridership reaching
well over the millions by the time the craze died down streetcars effectively ruled chicago's
growing transport system at their prime and yet they were perhaps destined for a tragically
short life span of only about 30 years with the last streetcar run happening in june of 1958 these
former iconic cars have all but been forgotten but today we will uncover what remains this is the
story of chicago's lost streetcar system i'm your host ryan socash and you're watching it's history
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will get a free week of audio experience and now back to chicago's lost street cars
let's set the stage at 19th century chicago though it started as a modest town it underwent
massive growth in the coming years the city's growth was so immense that by the year it was
officially incorporated as a city its population had already reached around four thousand over the
next two decades chicago's population saw an even larger boom reaching 30 000 by 1850 and 109 000 by
1860. around this time the city began to build up a reputation in the business of meatpacking
it also saw an exponential rise in trading commerce statewide enlarged thanks to the 1848
illinois and michigan canal as well as the 1860s railroads by the 1870s chicago's population had
reached 300 000 and as you can imagine to support further growth of the rapidly developing city the
transportation industry needed to grow along with the number of people that flocked there and as you
will see the progression to the streetcar didn't happen overnight in fact it was decades in the
making so now let's shift our focus to the first of many early forms of transportation in chicago
in 1852 omnibuses were by far the most common modes of transportation in not only the united
states but also europe these vehicles were large enclosed passenger transport carriages that came
long before the introduction of motor vehicles they were typically drawn by teams of two horses
at a time though as each horse could only pull an average of 10 to 12 miles and work four to
five hours each day stables typically had to keep 10 or more horses per omnibus the basic passenger
cabin had two wooden benches along the interior side and could carry several passengers at once
the later double-deckered horse-drawn buses had an uncovered upper deck with multiple wooden
benches sitting back to back allowing the buses to carry up to 30 passengers per trip the driver sat
outside the passenger's cabin on an elevated bench to guide the horses and often shuttled travelers
back and forth between railroad stations and hotels the chicago tribune cites an early letter
stating that these would have been great if they ran on schedule and the price was the same from
day to day and bus to bus early omnibus rides were rough and often uncomfortable due to the
bumpy cobblestone in the unpaved streets though they would see a vast improvement in the coming
years thanks to the introduction of steel rails these rails not only made the rides smoother but
improved the speed of trips by removing strain on the horses the first of these rails were
laid from the state street horse railroad on december the 2nd 1858 and by 1872 there were
a reported 202 omnibuses in active service there were also considerable drawbacks to this mode of
transportation namely just how much it cost to house feed and groom each horse with the total
number of horses reaching 6 600 an immense amount of waste was produced on a daily basis the sheer
amount of manure produced by these horses led to countless health concerns additionally having so
many horses on the street also brought the risk of the horses getting spooked
and injuring passer byers the devastation brought about by the great chicago fire of 1871 also
severely hurt the horse-drawn omnibus business as it killed many of the horses needed the last of
which would be wiped out by an outbreak that swept the city the following year the encyclopedia of
chicago states that before the great fire street railway systems had already tried to replace the
horses with small steam locomotives however this attempt was short-lived due to the backlash of the
public which didn't appreciate sparks smoke and the noise they generated so a far more sustainable
replacement came in the way of the cable car a system which the chicago city railways on the
south side adopted in the year of 1882 previously only used in san francisco before chicago built
its own line these systems were made up of single cable cars laid on rails across the street in 1883
charles j von de pole demonstrated an electric streetcar system at the chicago exhibition of
railway appliances five years later frank j sprague built the first successful electric
streetcar system in richmond virginia in 1888 they ran by gripping a continuously moving cable buried
in the street to stop the car the grip would be released the cars were operated by gripman a
driver who pulled a lever to clamp and release the grip on the cable in the event that he needed to
stop the car suddenly a lever needed to be pulled with an incredible force of 125 pounds accordingly
these streetcars were also known as grip cars and were not only far quieter than their predecessors
but they also solved the waste and expense issue in one fell swoop bringing us to a pinnacle moment
in the progression of chicago's lost surface lines the first cable car reportedly ran on state street
at 2 30 pm on january the 28th 1882 and 24 years later the last cable car would see service upon
reaching 21st street on october the 21st 1906. thanks to these new developments horse-drawn
omnibuses quickly became a thing of the past soon enough chicago earned the honor of having one of
the most extensive cable car systems in the entire world even despite its surprisingly short lifespan
these cable cars were incredibly influential throughout chicago laying the foundation
for a transit system that would soon follow allowing for chicago to flourish and expand
further than ever before wttw states that chicago had the most cable car passengers out of any city
in the united states with over 1 billion fares collected by the time they ceased service and this
title went hand in hand with also having the most cable cars in addition to this the chicago cable
car system also brought the new technology front and center for the entire country inspiring 29
other cities to build cable car systems of their own in fact these machines were so versatile that
they could even serve as snow plows during the cold winter months another interesting fact is
that the name of the chicago loop also originates from these cable cars as they would use loops of
track downtown to turn around on their routes the name the loop would ultimately become 100
reinforced later with the adoption of the chicago l at its peak the chicago cable car system had 13
powerhouses 41.2 miles of double-tracked rails and 34 individual cables these lines reached as far
south as 71st street and as far west as pulaski and north as diversity northbound lines ran under
the chicago river through the lasalle street tunnel which in turn allowed for the expansion
and housing of busy commuters we actually did an entire video on the forgotten streetcar tunnels
of chicago you can click it in this card above this unique technology didn't last
long just eight years after the first cable car ran the technology was already on its way
out being replaced by electric street cars powered by an overhead trolley line in 1890
the process of replacing chicago's numerous cable cars with electrified street cars officially began
though this process wasn't fully completed until around 1906 these electric street cars were a true
marvel of their time and were far more efficient not only cheaper to operate than those horse-drawn
omnibuses and cable cars but they were much larger and able to carry more passengers the new surface
lines provided a smoother ride that was also more energy efficient and cost less to install overall
so this was a winning proposition for the city moreover the transit system expanded
much further and got rid of long-standing issues that came with cable cars such as the cable brakes
there was a lot of competition during the transition from cable cars to the electric
street car early on one such rivalry was between the calumet electric streetcar company
the operator of the first electric streetcar to run in chicago in the south chicago city
railway formerly the ewing avenue horse railway the calumet electric street railway company
looped around downtown south chicago then went west along 93rd street running through calumet
heights for two miles to stoney island avenue near the railway's car house and generating
station this system tested the new technology and spurred the housing development in calumet heights
as reported by the central electric rail fans association the south chicago city railway went
as far south as 106th street through east side and as far west as torrance avenue
in south deering this extensive reach allowed the lions to serve wisconsin steel occupying both
banks of the calumet south of 106th in addition to serving wisconsin steel the south chicago city
railway also served other producers it continued down ewing through the middle of the east side
though both railways would see later extensions as the competing companies continued to expand
their streetcars took on distinct characteristics the south chicago city railway painted its cars
red and took the name the red lines the calumet electric street railway company painted its cars
yellow though its nickname was far less flattering referred to as the yellow pearl starting in 1907
the city began regulating and taxing street railways in 1914 all of chicago's street railway
companies came together and unified under the name the chicago surface lines before this union
service was split among many different companies including but not limited to chicago railways
company chicago city railways company calumet and south chicago railway company and western railway
company however starting in the 1920s automobiles became more affordable and caused the once
overcrowded streetcar ridership to decline heavily in response the president's conference committee
or pcc for short was formed in 1929 the pcc dedicated itself to finding ways to keep the
street cars busy alive and well as such many improvements were planned to make the cars
faster smooth convenient and comfortable enough to compete with automobiles that were quickly rising
in popularity two different designs were tested in chicago and not long after the winning design
was finalized and called the pcc car this pcc car wasn't just used in chicago but all over america
600 of them were ordered by chicago between 1945 and 1946 aptly named green hornet streetcars both
because of their incredible speed and for the fact that the chicago surface lines painted them green
around the same time that chicago was ordering the green hornet cars the chicago transit authority
was formed and on the 1st of october 1947 the chicago transit authority took over all rapid
transit and streetcar service in chicago so with everything being so great you might come to wonder
what could have led to such a rapid decline well the new green greenhorned streetcars were
efficient they could not handle traffic congestion and could not detour around blockades as quickly
as needed causing massive delays it became harder to turn a profit from these streetcars alone the
changing economic climate saw a decided shift towards buses such as the 1961 new look or the
fishbowl buses and within a mere couple of years the last streetcar to operate number 7213 a green
hornet on the wentworth line had its last run while the story of the chicago streetcars has long
since ended countless remnants linger all over the city after being replaced by fumes spewing
automobiles and buses you just need to look in the right places and so now let's fast forward
to modern day chicago to see what traces remain some of these remnants are quite literally right
underneath our feet for example in 2014 a pothole was discovered on kenzie avenue between the logan
square blue line stop and the longmen and eagle by a resident walking home from the train the
pothole reported by logan square resident bart shore was right in the middle of the intersection
remarkably the rail had not sustained much damage a radio traffic reporter for wbbm immediately
recognized the track exposed by the pothole to be part of the former kensey avenue streetcar line
though sadly much of the remarkability of this discovery was lost to many chicagoans
due to the lack of relevancy chicago's streetcars have had over the course of the past 60 years
thanks to the sheer length of the track it is far more common than you might think to find
remnants of the old network looping around some of chicago's most popular suburbs and streets in fact
seeing as most of the tracks were simply covered with asphalt construction workers frequently
unearthed the decades old tracks during sewer and road projects such as the 2010 construction that
took place on milwaukee avenue many of these old tracks such as those at 63rd and stoney island
were paved over in recent years however others remain visible such as those of the former lake
street line on north pine between lake street and corcoran where tracks are reportedly particularly
visible right underneath the bridge others have spotted not only exposed tracks but also
forgotten line poles at the old cta lawndale garage site then there's the large portion of
tracks sitting exposed at the 2600 block of west chicago avenue running from damon to kenzie there
are also tracks on 134th street or the remnants scattered across indiana avenue between 130th
and 134th street you've also got the former line that ran along 5500 street old car barns
electrical substations and bus garages also linger such as the 77th street and vincent's car barn or
the artemore temporary bus garage you'll also find many remnants of the now obsolete chicago
cable cars such as a cable pulling powerhouse from 1887 at lasalle in illinois street though
it has undergone countless changes serving as anything from a car repair shop to a steakhouse
it is an official chicago landmark it's even possible to visit the last two chicago cable
cars at the museum of science and industry and the illinois railway museum but what about the
rest of the streetcars believe it or not some of pcc streetcars remain in operation in places such
as kenosha wisconsin san francisco and the illinois railway museum furthermore several
modern day cta routes and numbers are the same as they were during the peak of the streetcars
in terms of keeping their memory alive in 2016 the illinois railway museum in union hosted a
chicago day to celebrate the anniversary of the last day of the streetcar operation in chicago
the museum had a fully functional streetcar designed and painted similar to the last
streetcar that ran as a part of the vincent's avenue route to commemorate the occasion
without a shadow of a doubt chicago's transit has evolved throughout the past centuries
though as we can see from the story of the iconic streetcars this often comes at the cost of many
old marvels being paved over and renovated beyond recognition as a child in the 80s i
can clearly remember the remnants of these tracks throughout the city and it's a wonder to think
that in many places right below the asphalt they are sitting there in the stillness of time let
me know if you're aware of any remnants we left out of this video in the comments section below
subscribe and do not forget to watch our chicago history playlist this is ryan silkesh signing off