Tuesday, August 13, 2019

Roosevelt (12th Street Line) and Cermak Streetcar Extensions to 1933-34 Fair


David M Laz posted this photo without acknowledgement, I found this copy on Chuckman
DID YOU KNOW THAT? Chicago had street cars run on a bridge over the IC tracks just behind the beloved Illinois Central Depot?
Gerry Grzyb I believe that is the 12th St. car line, which terminated on the west side of the Field Museum. I know it carried much traffic to the 1933-34 Century of Progress exposition that occupied much of what I still think of as Meigs Field, and perhaps it was put in just for that purpose. I think there was also another streetcar bridge to the lake at 22nd St.
David Daruszka Yes. the Cermak Road line was extended to the Fair grounds as well.
Gerry Grzyb David Daruszka that's the one. So anyway, I guess we're looking west on Roosevelt at the left of the photo. I wonder how long the trolley bridge lasted.
David Daruszka Until 1953. It was used as a bus shuttle route to the museums. Demolished not long after service was ended.
David Daruszka More info about the line at "The Trolley Dodger" http://thetrolleydodger.com/2015/02/page/2/
Val Ginter In the fifties, there was no streetcar service over the bridge on weekends. So if you went to a football game at Soldier Field, you had to walk on the catwalk. A bit scary, to say the least!
David Daruszka That would never happen today.

David Daruszka commented on David's post
A portion of the station and train shed of central station were demolished when the line was extended to the World's Fair. The line was built in 1933 specifically for the Fair. Construction photo.
[It looks like a steam shovel is still being used in 1933.]


David Daruszka commented on David's post
The Fair's terminal.
Gerry Grzyb CSL's map showed a loop at the end of both lines into the fair, so which terminal is in the photo?
Dennis DeBruler Gerry Grzyb Since we can see Soldier Field above the walkway, this would be the Cermak terminal. It appears that both tracks that we see are arrival platforms. Note that everybody on both platforms are walking to the walkway. The tracks then loop behind the walkway and curve to the left side where they have departure platforms.


TrollyDodger
A CSL map showing how the Roosevelt Road and Cermak Road streetcar lines were extended to new loops serving  A Century of Progress.
[This TrollyDodger page also includes a map of the entire CSL system.]

David Daruszka posted
I always assumed that when the Chicago Surface Lines extended the Roosevelt Rd. Street car line to the fairgrounds in Grant Park that the IC demolished the old balloon train shed. All the pictures I've seen shows the streetcars passing over the new flat roofed shed. This photo appears to show that the line was "tunneled" through the old shed for a period. No date give. From the John Berringer III photo collections.

By 1938, the fair ground buildings and the Cermak extension was torn down to make way for the new Lake Shore Drive that put the different directions of the drive on each side of Soldier Field and the Field Museum. But they kept the Roosevelt streetcar extension to serve the museum campus.
1938 Aerial Photo from ILHAP
Note this shows the extension still "tunnels" through Central Station's train shed.

William Shapotkin posted
How many remember the "streetcar bridge" over the IC trks at Central Station in Chicago? Built for access to the World's Fair in 1933-34, it survived into the early 1950s. Here we see a W/B car, working CTA Rt #12 -- ROOSEVELT, x/o the IC. BTW -- are those not NYC cars (perhaps off a Michigan Central train from Detroit (?)) visible at left? View looks south. Wm Shapotkin Collection.
John Mann At the entrance there were two stained glass windows one for IC and one for the Michigan Central. In the 1850s the IC, MC and CB&Q shared a station that burned in the Chicago Fire. The Q went it's own way after the fire. There are before and after shots in Overton's history of the Q.

Roger Blackburn posted nine photos with the comment: "canned these from my father's (Doc Howard Blackburn) slide collection over the holidays!"
Paul Jevert shared
[Note that the numbers are not in order. That is because I changed the order of the photos to display them from Michigan Avenue to the terminal.]
5

4

9

1
[Note the aquarium in the background.]

3

8

7

2

6, I'm guessing we are seeing the platform of the station out of the windows.



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