It is almost beyond comprehension, but the Chicago Tunnel Company had an extensive network of nearly 60 miles of tunnels under nearly every street of the downtown area. Over the years, the system shrank due to construction of the State Street Subway, the Dearborn Street Subway, and the Kennedy Expressway. Nevertheless, the system consists of over 40 miles of tunnels today.
The map below is rather crude, but it gives a basic idea as to really how big the system was. There is a highly-detailed poster-sized map available through this website showing the tunnels as they exist today. Visit the Railroad Freight House for details.
It is interesting to note that the Illinois Tunnel Company constructed a few hundred feet of unconnected tunnels south of 16th Street between State and Clark. For some unknown reason, these tunnels were never connected to the rest of the system and they were sealed off from the surface shortly after they were built. I often wonder what was left behind in these tunnels. Perhaps antique construction tools, old oil lamps, or who knows?
General Information About the Tunnel System in 1928
The following information was presented in the 1928 Chicago Tunnel Company booklet entitled What The Freight Tunnels Mean To Chicago. The information below is probably very accurate, but a few items are confused, and I am not entirely sure what the writers of the booklet were trying to say (e.g. "Pumps (large) connected with pumps").
| Size of Tunnel | 6' x 7' 6" |
| Miles of Tunnel equipped with 24 inch gauge track and trolley | 61.96 |
| Intersections (See note "A" below) | 734 |
| Power: Electric, D.C. 250 volts (4 substations and 11 sections) | |
| Elevators | 96 |
| Sumps | 63 |
| Pumps (large) connected with pumps | 540 |
| Lights in Tunnel | 3,800 |
| Telephones in Tunnel (See note "B" below) | 266 |
| Railroad Connections | 49 |
| Universal Public Stations (See note "C" below) | 4 |
| Private Merchandise Connections | 26 |
| Coal and Cinder Connections | 40 |
| Cinder Only Connections | 16 |
| Coal Receiving Stations | 3 |
| Average Distance Below Street Level | 40' |
Notes
A : The term "Intersection" probably refers to sidings as well as grand unions.
B: Like steam railroads on the surface, the Chicago Tunnel Company had a dispatcher in a central station who kept track of all train movements with telephones and a regular sheet of train locations and movements. Motormen would call the dispatcher all along their route for permission to proceed to the next call in point. If there was a problem, motormen would call in to report, and the dispatcher would re-route trains to avoid collisions. Considering the complexity of the system and the fact that there were around 300 train movements per day, that must have been a high pressure job!
C: Universal Public Stations were warehouses on the surface where anyone could drop off a shipment (small or large) to be routed through the tunnels. Trains were loaded and unloaded at these locations which tended to be on the outskirts of the system. The theory was that Universal Public Stations would enable shippers to drop off goods in an outlying location and avoid the congestion in the Central Business District. In reality, it was a very inefficient process.
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This page was built, and is maintained by Phil O'Keefe
Photographs are from the collections of Phil O'Keefe and Bruce Moffat
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