Chicago and North Western Railway

“ As a center of railroad industry Chicago takes precedence over all cities of the world. Twenty-six of the principal trunk-line railroads of the United States run trains into Chicago terminals, and in addition to these there are numerous belt transfer, terminal and industrial lines which have either a part or all of their trackage in the city. Within the corporate limits of the city are eight hundred miles of main line railway and one thousand four hundred miles of auxiliary track. ”

“ When the fleets of the Great Lakes plow the Atlantic, and when Duluth and Chicago become seaports, the water transportation of the Middle West will have completed its evolution. The significance of the development of the railway systems is not inferior to that of the great water way. Chicago has become the greatest railroad center of the world, nor is there another area of like size which equals this in its railroad facilities ”

“ But with the decline of water transportation the city has not suffered, for it stands at one of the natural cross roads of trade and travel. Today it is the chief railroad centre not only in the U.S. but in the world. Not counting subsidiary divisions there are 27 railroads entering Chicago, which is the western terminus of the great New York Central System.
Chicago is thus the focus of the activities of half a continent. It is the financial centre of the west and the metropolis of the richest agricultural section in the country. ”

“ The Northern, running from Lake Ontario at Toronto to Georgian Bay at Collingwood, was a magnified portage road, shortening by hundreds of miles the distance from Chicago and the upper lakes to the St Lawrence ports. The Great Western, connecting Buffalo and Detroit, was the central link in the shortest route between New York and Chicago. Not only were these roads important in themselves, but the experience acquired in the endeavour to finance and construct them largely determined the policy of the great era of railway construction which began with the chartering of the Grand Trunk. ”

“ Natural waterways and roads extended little west of Chicago. The new fields were entered by the railroads without prospect of any competition but that of other railroads. The resulting communities, born and developed between 1857 and 1873, were peculiarly the creatures of, and dependent on, the railway lines.
This inevitable dependence on railways colored the history of Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota, and, to a lesser degree, of all the West. While men were yet prosperous and sanguine and without adequate railway service, they offered high inducements to promoters of railways. ”

“ Every year seemed to add to the grievances of the public. Success greatly emboldened the railway companies. Discriminations seemed to increase in number and gravity. At many points in the western part of the State freight rates to Chicago were from 50 to 75 percent higher than from points in Kansas and Nebraska. A car of wheat hauled only across the State paid twice as much freight as another hauled twice the distance from its point of origin to Chicago. Minnesota flour was hauled a distance of 300 miles for a less rate than Iowa flour was carried 100 miles. ”

“ The people of Chicago, however, were determined to tap every field of trade within reach. They struck off to California, Denver, Utah, Saint Louis, to the north-west, and down to New Orleans, so that to-day Chicago has a population of one and a half millions, and Saint Louis only 500,000. Bulawayo is more favourably situated for railway expansion than Salisbury, which is inclined too far to the north-east, whilst Bulawayo is almost as near to Beira as Salisbury is. ”

“ The trains make from 12 to 15 miles an hour and deliver up to 100,000 tons a day. Of coal alone 4,000,000 tons are delivered through the subway to the “loop” district in a year. The system relieves the congested down-town streets of thousands of horses and wagons. Chicago is the only city in the world with a subway system of freight-distribution. Plans are being worked out for a great subway system which is to be built either by the city or by private capital under municipal control. ”

“ These trains carry through vestibuled Sleeping Cars between Chicago and New York, via New York Central & Hudson River Railroad, and between Chicago and Boston, via New York Central and Boston & Albany Railroads. The eastbound "Limited" also carries a through Sleeper, Chicago & Toronto (via Canadian Pacific) , where connection is made with Parlor Car for Montreal. Accommodations secured at the Michigan Central Ticket Offices, No. 67 Clark Street, corner Randolph, and Depot, foot of Lake Street, Chicago.
ASHLAND
M.LS. & W.RY.
ROUTE
The Milwaukee, Lake Shore and Western Railway. ”

“ Keeping in view the important points of speed, safety and comfort, together with the attractiveness of the scenery en route, we find the claims of
THE MICHIGAN CENTRAL RAILROAD To be of a character to meet all the requirements of the most exacting traveler. It has long been known as the Niagara Falls Route, and its recent acquirement of the Canada Southern Railway, making now a continuous line from Chicago to the very verge of the famous cataract, more fully than ever entitles it to that appellation. ”

“ Louis and all points east all electric lighted trains with observation, parlor, cafe dining cars and Pullman sleeping cars; the Chicago & Northwestern, whose through train service to Chicago and the East from San Francisco, Los Angeles, Portland, Salt Lake, Ogden and Denver is not excelled in any land; the Illinois Central Railroad, whose eight track entrance to Chicago from the south along the lake front is one of the triumphs of Yankee railroading, and whose train service is elegant in the extreme. ”

“ And yet she is the greatest railroad center in the whole world. And let me tell you this,” he paused. “New York can never equal Chicago commercially! How can she? Look on the map and see for yourself! From New York to San Francisco, north to the lakes and south to Mexico—that’s where Chicago’s trade reaches! What is there left for New York after that? She can, of course, trade north to Boston and south to Washington, but she can’t go west, because Chicago reaches all the way to New York herself, and [54] there is nothing on the east except the Atlantic Ocean!” ”

“ The Lake Shore Route—selected by the Government to run the famous Fast Mail Trains—is the only double track line between Chicago, Cleveland, Buffalo, New York, and Boston.—During the existence of the White City, the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway Co. placed in service special trains for the purpose of facilitating railway transportation between the eastern cities and the "Queen of the West." ”

“ We drove first to the Bank and got some money, and then through the best parts of the town, along the Michigan Boulevards, through which we had glimpses of the Lake, but everything here is sacrificed to the almighty dollar, and the railway engines poke themselves in everywhere, down the best streets, and destroying the prettiest landscapes, and making unearthly noises close to your bedroom, or puffing their steam out under your nose as you walk.
Chicago looks a more bustling, and a newer and a more railroad- dominated place than Glasgow, but like it in smoke and business aspect. ”

“ The Chicago Observer declared in 1896 that the Chicago & Alton Railway was recognized as one of the most convenient and luxurious of American railroads, that it was the first to run sleeping cars, to have dining cars, inaugurating also the first free reclining chair cars and reminded the public to bear in mind that these paying innovations—quickly imitated—were largely due to the Company’s indefatigable chief of passenger traffic. ”

“ The automobile industry alone occupies nearly all of Michigan Avenue for two miles south of Twelfth Street.
Surrounding this crowded business section are most of the terminals of Chicago's many railroads. These connect the city with New York, Boston, and Philadelphia in the East; with New Orleans, Galveston, and Atlanta in the South; as well as with San Francisco and the other large cities of the West. The courthouse and city hall and the new Northwestern Railway Station are among the city's finest buildings. ”

“ That the Chicago, Burlington, & Quincy Railway Company, a corporation of the state of Illinois, has, for many years last past, owned, operated, and controlled an extensive system of railway lines connecting the city of Chicago with the city of Denver, in the state of Colorado, and with the city of Billings, in the state of Montana, which last-named point is a junction and competitive point for freight and passenger traffic with said Northern Pacific Railway Company, etc. ”

“ The complaint points out the well-known fact that Chicago is the terminus of a large number of railroads engaged in interstate passenger traffic and that a great majority of the persons making interstate railroad trips which carry them through Chicago must disembark from a train at one railroad station, travel from that station to another some two blocks to two miles distant, and board another train at the latter station. ”

“ In the beginning he would change cars four or five times between Albany and Buffalo; and when fifteen or sixteen years later the railroad had extended itself all the way out to Chicago there were three or four more changes to be made. To-day a solid train from New York or Boston to Chicago or St. Louis is so much a part of our regular order of things as to cause no comment whatever. Yet even to-day one cannot ride across the North American continent from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific without a change of cars—that is, not in the United States. ”

“ The chief feature was the Ferris Wheel, described in engineering terms as a cantilever bridge wrought around two enormous bicycle wheels. The axle, supported upon steel pyramids, alone weighed more than a locomotive. In cars strung upon its periphery passengers were swung from the ground far above the highest buildings.
Midway Plaisance, World’s Fair, Chicago.
Facilitating passenger transportation to and from the Fair remarkable railway achievements were made. One train from New York to Chicago covered over 48 miles an hour, including stops. ”

“ How helpless against a combination of railways is the city of twenty-five thousand inhabitants when struggling to do such a seemingly small and entirely right thing as to provide gates at grade railway crossings. The writer has one case in mind. The very modest efforts of the city were met with the threat that the railway shops would be removed to a village some thirty miles distant and in an adjoining state. Even the city of Chicago has had a mighty struggle, continuing for years, in its efforts to protect life at railway crossings. ”

“ The Chicago and Atlantic Railway runs solid Pullman trains, the finest ever built, daily between Chicago and New York, etc., by way of the Erie Railway, and through its valuable connections reaches every important point in the entire country. The construction and equipment of the road are of the most perfect description, all that modern skill can compass having been called into requisition to ensure safety, comfort, speed and reliable connections, without having to change cars. ”

“ The next move in railway construction work for the community was the extension of the new line west, on its way to the Missouri river, a line which is today the main artery of the Chicago & Northwestern system, forming an important part of the great highway of steel connecting the Atlantic and Pacific.
The original promoters of the Chicago, Iowa and Nebraska Railway, living in Cedar Rapids, were anxious that that company should build a branch line up the Cedar valley from this point, and thus tap the rich and rapidly growing territory lying to the northwest of Cedar Rapids. ”

“ The more they scatter the better it is for the railways. The railway does not discriminate against shipments because they are east bound or west bound. We are glad to see the same things come from Chicago into New England that are manufactured and sent from New England into Chicago. ”

“ Nine hundred miles separated Chicago from New York; but trains are not wanting at Chicago. Mr. Fogg passed at once from one to the other, and the locomotive of the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne, and Chicago Railway left at full speed, as if it fully comprehended that that gentleman had no time to lose. It traversed Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey like a flash, rushing through towns with antique names, some of which had streets and car-tracks, but as yet no houses. ”

“ The first locomotive in the United States was imported from England and placed upon the rails in 1829, and in 1830 the first American locomotive was built. It was, however, very near the middle of the century before the system of railroads had been completed so as to materially improve the condition of agriculture; and although the fact may sound strange to some, the first railroad train ran into Chicago in 1852. During these years of depressed agriculture, however, the population of the country was rapidly increasing. ”

“ Recognizing the future of Cedar Rapids as a railroad, manufacturing and distributing center, the railroads have all been expending vast sums of money in [Pg 339] the past few years in the acquisition of property for terminal purposes. The Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul, the Illinois Central, and the Rock Island now control absolutely the entire section of the city lying between Fifth and Ninth avenues, the river and Third street, and it is only fair to presume that the four blocks between Third and Fourth streets and Fifth and Ninth avenues will also be devoted exclusively to railway purposes. ”