wanswheel Video about 1992 Chicago tunnel flood and some tunnel history http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MoNyzmWz_Y
Video about 1992 Chicago tunnel flood and some tunnel history
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MoNyzmWz_Y
I walked down from the 37th floor that day. Couldn't use the elevators because the electricity in the building on Michigan Ave. was endangered by the flood water.
I was amazed at how well the Loop was evacuated. We walked to our train stations. Somehow, the commuter trains got moved up to run hours ahead of schedule. They were doing a "Run When Full" operation. When a train was filled to standee capacity it left Union Station and made all stops. It wasn't the most comfortable or rapid ride, but I got home.
When I got home I called my now ex wife and let her know what had happened. I then bought two Cornish Hens and had a nice dinner ready when she got home from work.
I'll never forget the very impressive sight of the Chicago mounted police lined up side by side in Daley Plaza. They looked like a calvary unit ready for action.
Things like this don't surprise me much, considering the sheer amount of money to be made in the illicit drug trade. It probably didn't take much time at all to amortise the cost of constructing and equipping these tunnels.
Reminds me of something my father once said adout elaborate criminal enterprises:
Can you imagine what these people could accomplish if they applied all that hard work and ingenuity to something positive?
DwightBranch What they need is electric locomotives like these . I think there are still some abandoned under the city of Chicago.
What they need is electric locomotives like these . I think there are still some abandoned under the city of Chicago.
Exactly! But don't give those folks digging the tunnels at the Boarder, and ideas, They seem to be creative enough on their own, already.
The Tunnels under the Chicago Central Business District area were amazing. Connecting all the major Commercial structures to move all manner of freight and mail about the downtown, without congestion. There was a lot of potential still there, simply by their very existence; even after the abandonments of the late 1950s.
I was working in the late 1980s for an operation at the North end of the Bridgeport area, and was aware of some of the articles being bandied about on the News and local papers, for potential new use of the Tunnels even then.
It was the subsequent piercing and the flooding that followed that put those ideas to bed. That flooding of the building that still had their downtown portals left a bad taste in the mouths of many businesses in Downtown Chicago. Many folks,in Chicago had completely forgotten about those miles of tunnels being there, until the time they were source of the Downtown flooding.
Saw this \following linked article and I was amazed at what had apparently been accomplished. I know it is a sort of "Off Topic" discussion, but Imagine the amount of ingenuity that this construction took, and against the back ground of the other types of railroad construction planned and taking place in California, IUt seems sort of mind boggling that resources can be applied like this and done in relative secrecy. Story linked: @
http://news.yahoo.com/two-drug-tunnels-rail-systems-found-u-mexico-163343844--finance.html
"...Two drug tunnels, with rail systems, found at U.S.-Mexico border.."
Federal law enforcement officials said the first tunnel, which connects a warehouse in Tijuana, Mexico, with one in an industrial park in the border community of Otay Mesa, is about 600 yards long and is furnished with lighting, a crude rail system and wooden trusses.
The passageway is accessed via a 70-foot shaft secured by a cement cover and includes a pulley system on the U.S. side apparently intended to hoist contraband up into the warehouse.
The second tunnel was even more sophisticated, built with a multi-tiered electric rail system and an array of ventilation equipment..." [snipped]
APPOLOGIES TO YIP HARBURG, WHO WROTE " BROTHER CAN YOU SPEAR A DIME."
[snip] :"...They used to tell me I was building a dream, with peace and glory ahead, Why should I be standing in line, just waiting for bread?Once I built a railroad, I made it run, made it race against time. Once I built a railroad; now it's done. Brother, can you spare a dime?.." [snip]
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