CSSHEGEWISCH Neighborhood divisions in Chicago in Chicago were surprisingly sharp since the railroad embankments doubled as dividing walls in many instances. Track elevation ordinances were an early method of eliminating grade crossings and were enacted in the period prior to WW1. In the older parts of the city, the tracks and often entire yards and other facilities were elevated about twenty feet with underpasses provided for through streets.
Neighborhood divisions in Chicago in Chicago were surprisingly sharp since the railroad embankments doubled as dividing walls in many instances. Track elevation ordinances were an early method of eliminating grade crossings and were enacted in the period prior to WW1. In the older parts of the city, the tracks and often entire yards and other facilities were elevated about twenty feet with underpasses provided for through streets.
I think that's true in many cities, and smaller towns for that matter. Hence the phrase; "The other side of the tracks".
BLS53 CSSHEGEWISCH Neighborhood divisions in Chicago in Chicago were surprisingly sharp since the railroad embankments doubled as dividing walls in many instances. Track elevation ordinances were an early method of eliminating grade crossings and were enacted in the period prior to WW1. In the older parts of the city, the tracks and often entire yards and other facilities were elevated about twenty feet with underpasses provided for through streets. I think that's true in many cities, and smaller towns for that matter. Hence the phrase; "The other side of the tracks".
The 'wrong' side of the tracks was the downwind side. The smoke from all the steam engines blew downwind.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
BaltACD BLS53 CSSHEGEWISCH Neighborhood divisions in Chicago in Chicago were surprisingly sharp since the railroad embankments doubled as dividing walls in many instances. Track elevation ordinances were an early method of eliminating grade crossings and were enacted in the period prior to WW1. In the older parts of the city, the tracks and often entire yards and other facilities were elevated about twenty feet with underpasses provided for through streets. I think that's true in many cities, and smaller towns for that matter. Hence the phrase; "The other side of the tracks". The 'wrong' side of the tracks was the downwind side. The smoke from all the steam engines blew downwind.
So that is how "good sides" and "bad sides" developed? By which way the steam blew? Then there must be a bunch of towns where the wind never shifted.
BLS53 BaltACD BLS53 CSSHEGEWISCH Neighborhood divisions in Chicago in Chicago were surprisingly sharp since the railroad embankments doubled as dividing walls in many instances. Track elevation ordinances were an early method of eliminating grade crossings and were enacted in the period prior to WW1. In the older parts of the city, the tracks and often entire yards and other facilities were elevated about twenty feet with underpasses provided for through streets. I think that's true in many cities, and smaller towns for that matter. Hence the phrase; "The other side of the tracks". The 'wrong' side of the tracks was the downwind side. The smoke from all the steam engines blew downwind. So that is how "good sides" and "bad sides" developed? By which way the steam blew? Then there must be a bunch of towns where the wind never shifted.
Every area has its own 'prevailing wind pattern'; that doesn't mean that the wind always blows from that direction - different weather fronts do cause the direction of the wind to change, however, each area has its own normal weather pattern and the prevailing wind is a function of the normal weather pattern.
Since we're discussing the South Side, my old neighborhood had an interesting geographic quirk. Up until fairly recently, it was physically impossible to get in or out of Hegewisch without going over a grade crossing. It helps that even now, the neighborhood is separated from the rest of Chicago by industrial development and undeveloped land.
redrye here is a link to a facebook site - a railfan found the remains of the PRR station under the Skyway. Amazing.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/southchicagoraceway/
You r right. I drove to hegewisch the other day and discovered the 130th street street grade crossing is gone replaced by a large bridge/underpass. And they relocated and redid the South Shore bridge too.
The situation around 130th and Torrence was most interesting. Immediately east of Torrence was a grade crossing of the CWI over 130th Street. The traffic lights at the intersection were synchronized with this grade crossing. The CWI line was taken up in the late 1980's. The ex-NKP main ran at a diagonal and crossed both 130th and Torrence at separate grade crossings about block from the intersection. The lead into the Ford plant came off of this line and switching moves frequently tied up 130th Street and occasionally Torrence Ave.
The South Shore overpass was about a block south of 130th Street and was a rather conventional steel girder bridge-trestle mix. I was surprised that it was replaced by a truss bridge rather than a similar bridge-trestle.
Another take on "the wrong side of the tracks"...
In the midwest / west, railroads that were given land grants for construction were often alloted alternating one-mile squares of land. So for one mile, the railroad would own the land on the right side of the track, for the next mile, they'd own the land on the other side. Cutting down any timber on their land, and/or selling their free land was designed to help pay for the rail line's construction.
When railroads decided to build say a division point yard / roundhouse etc., they would build it on the land they already owned via the land grant, so let's say the north side of an east-west rail line. Houses, stores, schools etc. would then generally gravitate towards the south side of the track, since people didn't want to live right next to the railroad's smoke and noise.
Any 'leftover' land the railroad didn't need on their side of the line wasn't very desirable, so would sell rather cheaply. This meant it was often sold to poorer folks, like newer immigrants, or to people wanting to build saloons or other 'establishments' that could service the needs of the railroad workers.
Hence the railroad side would become the 'wrong side of the tracks', an area where people wouldn't want to live if they could help it.
Trains and Saloons..thats were I am living! Guess it explains a lot of why my economic circumstances are not what they should be.
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