Among the more important general manufactures of the city may be mentioned those of railway cars, locomotives, agricultural implements, mining appliances, clothing, electrical apparatus, lumber products, furniture, pianos, organs, leather, cigars, chemicals, beer, spirits, and flour. The steel and iron industry is conducted on a large scale, and the city has some large rolling mills. Chicago is also one of the leading publishing centers of the United States, and is an active jobbing center for the book trade.
As a center of railroad industry Chicago takes precedence over all cities of the world. Twenty-six of the principal trunk-line railroads of the United States run trains into Chicago terminals, and in addition to these there are numerous belt transfer, terminal and industrial lines which have either a part or all of their trackage in the city. Within the corporate limits of the city are eight hundred miles of main line railway and one thousand four hundred miles of auxiliary track. The total mileage of the twenty-six roads entering Chicago approximates ninety-seven thousand miles, or about forty-two per cent of the total mileage of the United States. The land occupied by main line property within Chicago represents nine thousand six hundred acres, or eight per cent of the entire area of the city.
There are six principal passenger terminals in Chicago, located as follows:
Baltimore & Ohio Terminal (Grand Central Station), at Fifth Avenue and Harrison Street. Central Station, at Michigan Avenue and Twelfth Street. Chicago & North Western Passenger Terminal, at North Clinton, West Madison, and North Canal Streets. La Salle Street Station, with entrance on Van Buren Street. Dearborn Station, at Dearborn and Polk Streets. Union Passenger Station, at Adams and Canal Streets.
Present plans are under way, however, to concentrate all roads entering Chicago in three great union stations—the North Western Station (already built, at a cost of $25,000,000), the Illinois Central Station, and the Pennsylvania Station, the two latter involving an expenditure of one hundred and fifty million dollars.
The water carrying trade of Chicago is comparable to that of New York and Boston, and exceeds that of Philadelphia, New Orleans, Baltimore, and San Francisco.
The Chicago Tunnel System involves a labyrinth of small tunnels or subways, six by seven and one-half feet in size, and sixty-two miles long, forty feet under the principal business streets within the Loop district. These tunnels connect with all railway freight depots, passenger stations and, through their sub-basements, with a number of the larger mercantile concerns. They also extend beyond the Loop—north, south, and west—a distance of about two miles. They are not designed for passenger traffic, but are used by cars laden with all sorts of merchandise, coal, ashes, etc.
There are three underground power stations, four universal freight and transfer stations (one of them occupying five floors below the ground), eighty-five ordinary stations, and twelve tunnels, extending sixty feet under the Chicago River or its branches. So far, between thirty million and forty million dollars have been expended on construction and equipment. The bores also contain the cables of the automatic telephone company.
The site of Chicago was first visited by Joliet and Marquette in 1673. The United States Government established there the frontier post of Fort Dearborn in 1804. On October 8 and 9, 1871, occurred the memorable fire which reduced the greater part of the city to ashes. In 1886 occurred the Haymarket riot, in 1893 the World’s Columbian Exposition was held in Chicago, and in 1894 the Pullman strike, the greatest in history, centered in Chicago.
Cincinnati (sin-si-nä´ti), Ohio. [The “Queen City,” named in honor of Cincinnatus, the Roman patriot.]