4 Comments
⭠ Return to thread

Why, just yesterday I thought about:

The Great Lakes

The Cincinnati subway

1893 World's Fair*

This chart covers many of my standbys, though I would also have to add Water Features, Trains In General, How To Fix Chicago Transit, The Nervous System, Secret Passages, The Defunct And Paved Over But Still Extant Streetcar Tunnels Under The Chicago River, Boating, and Recipes

*Kinda hard not to think about it with regularity when you live in Chicago

Expand full comment

Let's talk more about secret passages. (Or does that defeat the point?)

Expand full comment

No, no, we can discuss here amongst friends.

A) I've always wanted a house with secret passages. Should I ever find myself in the position of being an eccentric millionaire, I will commission one.

B) In my brain, "secret passages" also covers secret tunnels, rooms, and doors. The sealed and abandoned streetcar tunnels under the Chicago River AND the Cincinnati subway fall into this category, even though they're not secret, per se.

C) Also covered in this category: the alleged unfinished Chicago Pedway tunnel connected to the postmodern skyscraper at 311 S Wacker, the locked-off cow path going through 100 W. Monroe, and the unfinished Block 37 transit Superstation.

Expand full comment

I used to live in Salem, MA and it was established history that some wealthy ship owners or importers had underground tunnels built from the harbor to their basements so that they could avoid Customs and there are rumors to this date that some houses still have at least the terminus points in their (likely soggy) basements.

We did not have one of these homes, sadly.

Expand full comment