Cable cars in Chicago

In 1900, there were three private companies operating 41 miles (66.0 km) of double track routes radiating out from Chicago's downtown area.

Flat and low, drainage was poor and the roads were often muddy and near impassible for foot and horse traffic.

In 1882 the CCR opened cable lines to the south on State St. and Wabash-Cottage Grove Ave.

A strike of cable car gripmen occurred in June 1883 to protest the low wages they were offered.

Another strike was called in October 1888, this time stopping all cable car traffic in the city.

[2] In 1890 the re-organized West Chicago Street Railroad (WCSR) opened their first lines, to the northwest on Milwaukee Ave.

In 1893 two more routes would open, southwest on Blue Island Ave and south on Halsted St.

[3][4][5][6] The cable cars did not suffer much from the elements, and the harsher winters of the US Midwest and East Coast were no problem for them.

As in other cities the cable cars did not completely replace the horsecars, but they rather created a transportation backbone.

[7][8][9] Although they were the current state of the art in public transportation, Chicago's cable car operators had their share of accidents and incidents, and were implicated as the cause of death of more than one prominent citizen of the time, including U.S.

[10][11][12][13] In another instance, Cleveland Mayor Tom L. Johnson narrowly avoided serious injury when the automobile he was driving was hit by a cable car; Johnson had been in Chicago specifically to see the cable car system and evaluate its potential for use in Cleveland.

[14] One of the more widely reported accidents occurred on December 12, 1894, when a Milwaukee Avenue line car's grip failed upon entering the incline to the Washington Street Tunnel.

Both the NCSR and WCSR operated large combination grip cars, with an open front and closed back sections.

[22][23][24] All three companies used similar infrastructures, with large steam boilers and reciprocating engines driving long endless cables through conduits.

Dummy companies were created to extort the operators, and property owners often conspired to sell their consent to the routes.

The CCR, well managed and first in operation, was affected least, while the North and West companies, controlled by robber baron Charles Tyson Yerkes, were involved in some unscrupulous business practices.

When first opened the State St. and Wabash - Cottage Grove Avenue lines both used a slow speed (4 mph (6.4 km/h)) three block loop.

This could not handle the traffic, in 1892 the Cottage Grove Avenue line started using a new two block loop directly east of the original, which was rebuilt two years later.

Little improvement was done until 1885, when a Philadelphia syndicate controlled by Charles Tyson Yerkes reorganized it as the North Chicago Street Railroad.

A south and southwest line terminated west of the river until the privately built Van Buren St. tunnel opened in 1894, an eight block loop was used.

A shop building from 1902 and streetcar barns from 1906 remained in service in 2014 at the Chicago Transit Authority's 77th St. and Vincennes Ave.

[42] A WCSR altered powerhouse at Jefferson and Washington Streets and a car barn on Blue Island Ave. near Western Avenue remained in 2016.