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Raising of Chicago

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Re: Raising of Chicago

#21

Post by toast0 »

fsckboy wrote: post #6
bilbo0s wrote: post #3

I feel like only in places like Chicago could this have worked. It's like the water system in Chicago, just massive. And everyone just shrugs and says, "Dig 100 miles of deep tunnel and massive reservoirs? Yep. Let's get 'er done." A lot of places I've lived, things like that wouldn't fly. I was equally amazed at Phoenix with their, what I can only call a "strategic water reserve". A lot of thought and money goes int…

> I feel like only in places like Chicago could this have worked the original downtown of Seattle got moved up 1 floor: they didn't raise the buildings, they raised the street, the old 2nd floors became first floors.* You can still visit the underground Seattle in some places. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_Underground * carefully worded to also work on European floor number systems.

Port Angeles, WA has a similar, but smaller Underground.

Re: Raising of Chicago

#22

Post by selectodude »

nkrisc wrote: post #18
joezydeco wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My family is originally from the Pilsen neighborhood, you can see examples all over the place of houses lower than the street. Example: https://maps.app.goo.gl/F39JxUPZoobGMgiq9

I know between Division and North there’s some remaining blocks like that too: https://maps.app.goo.gl/NHriGdh1cvL193487 Though so many are gone now and replaced with new construction.

It’s a lot broader than that. Goes at least to Fullerton.

Re: Raising of Chicago

#23

Post by mxuribe »

Kon-Peki wrote: post #19
mxuribe wrote: post #10

The whole concept is bonkers! By this i mean that i can not imagine many officials would even have the will to even try something so big and audacious nowadays. Also, my favorite note in the wikipedia entry (besides the whole article being awesome!), is this one: "Many of the city's old wooden buildings were considered not worth raising, so instead the owners of these wooden buildings had them either demolished or el…

> I can not imagine many officials would even have the will to even try something so big and audacious nowadays. How about renaming 567 streets on a single Friday? https://chicagology.com/chicagostreets/streetnamechanges/

Wow! Even the renaming of streets - which yes, would need physical work to swap out the physical street signs - seems to far fetched to be done nowadays! But, that's a pretty cool factoid; thanks for sharing!

Re: Raising of Chicago

#24

Post by Oarch »

I've told people about this event before and they couldn't believe it! Then I tried to research it more, find more depictions and there's frustratingly little online. Began to make me wonder whether it was a prank.

Re: Raising of Chicago

#27

Post by an_aparallel »

ashryan wrote: post #15
an_aparallel wrote: post #12

Ah man - this is one of the cooler things i've ever heard of. I first heard of it in PBS doco "Chicago: City of the Century". That documentary - is one of the finest chronicles of modern society i've ever seen. The insights into psychology, civil engineering, and history are second to none. Most profound to me were the "design" of suburbs with the trappings we dont think very much of these days - libraries, pools, sh…

I just came across American Experience for the first time over the last week. What I've seen so far is incredible. This is their YouTube profile: https://www.youtube.com/@AmericanExperiencePBS/featured Unfortunately, the doc you mention isn't on there. They do have the transcript on their site tho: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/chicago/

Indeed, Ken Burns docos are brilliant!

Re: Raising of Chicago

#28

Post by nkrisc »

awad wrote: post #16

Are all the raised areas sitting on top of the jackscrews (where used) from 170 years ago? That itself is astounding.

No, as the article states they raised the buildings then built a new foundation underneath.

Re: Raising of Chicago

#29

Post by potato3732842 »

dugmartin wrote: post #5
bilbo0s wrote: post #3

I feel like only in places like Chicago could this have worked. It's like the water system in Chicago, just massive. And everyone just shrugs and says, "Dig 100 miles of deep tunnel and massive reservoirs? Yep. Let's get 'er done." A lot of places I've lived, things like that wouldn't fly. I was equally amazed at Phoenix with their, what I can only call a "strategic water reserve". A lot of thought and money goes int…

It was done in other cities. Boston flooded a bunch of towns 60 miles to the west to build a water supply: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quabbin_Reservoir New York City built three long aqueducts to bring in water: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City_water_supply_sys... I doubt you could get anything even resembling those projects built today due to environmental concerns.

That's kind of different because they were kicking out a relatively small number of people with not much wealth or power to resist as opposed to doing those sorts of projects in urban areas.

You can visit the reservoir area and see the razed town centers that are miles from the actual water. It's kind of a sad monument to the "messy" consequences of central planning.

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