Why Does Chicago Have Elevated Trains?

A Green Line train traveling on the elevated tracks

Two reasons: money and geology. In the early 1890s, as Chicago prepared for the World’s Columbian Exposition, there was a rush by private companies to build a public transportation system here. The first elevated train line was opened in 1892, and three more private lines would soon follow. In 1897, transportation magnate Charles T. Yerkes … Read more

What Was Chicago’s First Skyscraper?

The Home Insurance Building, designed by architect William Le Baron Jenney

Not only was the Home Insurance Building, located at the northeast corner of La Salle and Adams Streets, the first skyscraper in Chicago — it was the first skyscraper in the world. Designed by famed architect William Le Baron Jenney and completed in 1885, it rose 10 stories (and eventually 12, after an addition six years later), … Read more