Chicago's Historic Places: Union Station Traditional Cache
madamemoutard: Well, it was fun while it lasted. Since people can't refrain from destroying people's property I have to archive this one.
Chicago's Historic Places: Union Station
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Watertight bottle with velcro. New position for this cache since
the other position didn't prove permanent so if you've found it
before, feel free to find and log it again. I replaced this at
night so you may find two caches here since I wasn't able to
determine if the original was gone. You will not have to bend down
to get the new one. VERY VERY busy area during the work hours of
the work week. Be discreet when finding the cache and bring your
own pen.
"Union Station is a Chicago, Illinois train station that opened in
1925, replacing an earlier 1881 station, and is now the only
intercity rail terminal in Chicago. Union Station was built on the
west side of the Chicago River and stands between Adams Street and
Jackson Street. It is, including approach and storage tracks, about
nine and a half city blocks in size, and almost entirely beneath
streets and skyscrapers. The Chicago Union Station Company, now a
subsidiary of Amtrak, owns the station.
On April 7, 1874 the Pennsylvania Company (the owner of the
Pennsylvania Railroad's "Lines West" territory), Chicago,
Burlington and Quincy Railroad, Michigan Central Railroad, Chicago
and Alton Railroad and Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway
signed an agreement to build a union station on land owned by the
Pennsylvania Company's Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railway
between Van Buren Street and Madison Street on the west side of the
Chicago River.
The Michigan Central, which used the Illinois Central Railroad's
Illinois Central Depot, would have switched to the Pittsburgh, Fort
Wayne and Chicago Railway at Tolleston, Indiana. However, it
quickly decided to keep using the Illinois Central Depot. The
Chicago and North Western Railway also considered switching to the
new station from its Wells Street Station, but instead built the
Chicago and North Western Passenger Terminal in 1911. The other
four companies went on to use the station when it opened in
1881.
The second Union Station was built by the Chicago Union Station
Company, owned by all the companies that used the first station but
the Chicago and Alton (which used the new one anyway). The
architect was Daniel Burnham of Chicago, who died before its
completion. The firm of Graham, Anderson, Probst and White
completed the work to Burnham's designs. Work began in 1913 and the
station opened on May 16, 1925, though some construction on
viaducts carrying streets over the approach tracks went on into
1927. Construction was delayed by World War I, labor shortages and
strikes. It is one of about a dozen monumental Beaux-Arts railroad
stations that were among the most complicated architectural
programs of the era called the "American Renaissance", combining
traditional architecture with engineering technology, circulation
patterning and urban planning.
Upon its completion, Union Station was hailed as an outstanding
achievement in railroad facility planning. Today, the monumental
neoclassical station is the last remaining railroad terminal still
used by intercity trains in Chicago. The station's ornate
Beaux-Arts main waiting room, the "Great Hall", is one of the
United States' great interior public spaces with its vaulted
skylight, statuary, and connecting lobbies, staircases, and
balconies. The Great Hall is over 34 meters high. Enormous wooden
benches are arranged in the room for travellers to wait for
connections.
During World War II, Union Station was at its busiest, handling as
many as 300 trains and 100,000 passengers daily. In 1969, the
concourse at Union Station was demolished so that two office
buildings and a new, modernized concourse could be constructed. In
1992, Union Station was renovated by Lucien Lagrange Associates.
Union Station currently serves all Amtrak intercity trains to
Chicago, as well as Metra commuter rail lines - the North Central
Service, Milwaukee District/North Line, Milwaukee District/West
Line, BNSF Railway Line, Heritage Corridor and SouthWest Service.
As of 2004, approximately 50,000 people use the station on a daily
basis.
Unlike other major American intercity/commuter rail hubs, such as
Grand Central Terminal and Penn Station in New York, and Union
Station in Los Angeles, Union Station does not have any direct
connection to local rapid transit service: the Chicago Transit
Authority's El system does not stop at Union Station. However,
Chicago's highly centralized urban form means that most commuters
can walk to their final destinations."
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