Making Modern Chicago | Part 1: Building a Boomtown
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- čas přidán 16. 06. 2024
- Chicago is the crown jewel of the post-industrial United States with a metropolitan population of 9.5 million. It triumphed over nature to make itself a boomtown and railroad hub. Now, its economy is considered the most balanced and resilient on earth. This is the building of modern Chicago, the crossroads of America.
Part 2 • World's Fastest Growin...
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Thanks to Paul Durica and the Chicago History Museum www.chicagohistory.org/
Main clip sources: WTTW Chicago's local PBS station / @wttw
This futuristic urban river canyon reflects a staggering amount of resources, capital, and innovation. It’s also America’s railroad hub and the central node in America’s extensive system of navigable freshwater ways. Its roads lead to most corners of the continent, and its runways send direct flights to over 200 destinations-all of this supports one of the planet’s most productive regions for growing crops and extracting raw materials. The opportunities available in and around this prairie boomtown have attracted hungry young workers for nearly two centuries. In fact, so many arrived daily that it sustained the highest population growth rate on earth for several consecutive decades in the late 1800s.
Its story began when a Haitian-born fur trader [Jean Baptiste DeSalle] and his wife [Kitihawa], a member of the local indigenous Potawatomi tribe, established an outpost here in 1779.
It remained a sleepy frontier village for decades until Chicago’s first locomotive, the Pioneer, made its inaugural trip out to nearby Des Plaines in 1848.
I learned about this pivotal moment firsthand when I visited the Chicago History Museum for a trip back in time with Paul Durica.
These products were listed in mail-order catalogs, an industry invented and based in Chicago. The conveniences of online shopping can be traced directly back to Montgomery Ward and Sears-businesses that were only possible because the railroad reliably delivered.
By the beginning of the 20th century. Chicago had close to 40 different railroad lines running through it. Most cities today will have like maybe one Union Station or a central terminal-but by the early 1900s, Chicago had six different ones.
Chicago was also responsible for the rapid growth of the vast prairies that stretched westward to the Rocky Mountains. A Chicagoan had invented the mechanical reaper, freeing wheat farmers from the backbreaking, inefficient work of harvesting their crops by hand. And when they shipped their wheat into the city, 12 massive grain elevators stored it before it was sent across the lake to Buffalo, or downriver and onto oceanliners waiting in New Orleans.
But even with this bounty, prairie farmers couldn’t build much of anything, because their lands had few trees to harvest. Good thing there were expansive forests in Wisconsin and Michigan north of Chicago, and soon it became the world’s largest lumber market.
“The Union Stockyard in many ways is the kind of natural culmination of how the city's been growing and developing because it's all about centralization and expanding markets.
Hundreds of millions of calories were passing through the processing plants and storage facilities of Chicago every single day, feeding the ravenous Union Army in its hard-fought victory in the Civil War.
“Chicago is situated magnificently for trade, but it’s a pestilential swamp-it’s a horrible place for a city. It’s an absolute hellhole… Children were playing with maggots as if they were little pets.”
Before long, Cholera had crept up the Mississippi to extinguish 60 Chicagoans a day during the warm summer months.
To find a solution, Chicago brought in Ellis Chesbrough, one of America’s brightest sanitation engineers. He designed gravity-fed sewers to flush the waste into the river, and then deepened the river by dredging it and using the fill to raise Chicago’s ground level 10 feet. Lifting all the existing buildings safely required widespread adoption of a new system: George Pullman’s jack.
“So, how could you reverse the flow? Well, you must realize that the land form drops off. You get down to the city of Joliet and you’re 40 feet below Lake Michigan. The idea was to link up the south branch of the Chicago River with the Des Plaines river and to break through that subcontinental divide.
When they had finally finished the Chicago Shipping and Sanitation Canal, and were ready to let the water in, they still weren’t positive it would even work. After a few tense moments, amazingly, the water began to flow slowly downhill.
0:00 Welcome to Chicago
1:20 A Sleepy Frontier Town
2:04 Railroads Help Industry Takes Off
3:10 Prarie Boomtown
5:00 Union Stockyards
6:24 The Battle Against Cholera
7:10 Chicago's Innovative Water System
9:02 Reversing the River
11:12 Outro: Part 1 of 4
Part 2 czcams.com/video/V9LQ2oWZlZI/video.html
The fact Chicago is _still_ a huge crossroads of trade explains why despite its problems, it will survive well into the future. And goods trade is much more adaptable to change than a monolithic industrial town like Detroit, where the collapse of the auto industry and Mauel Mouron's stranglehold on cross-border trade with next-door Canada stunted Detroit economically.
Well, Detroit is back, they've got Quicken Loans now!
Four parts? Yes please! My inner Chicagoan is singing
Oh good :)
Chicagoans here☝🏽
It should be criminal for this video to not have a million views
its a pestilentrous swamp. its a hell hole. - historian speaking of early Chicago. I love that
Beautiful city
I thought I knew so much about Chicago already, but your video proved me wrong! It was so interesting and well edited! Thank you so much for this. 🙂
That’s awesome to hear-it was a fun one to make!
Love this series so much!
Hey Tacos, Part 3 out now! ;)
Incredible City
as a Chicagoan this was a great mini-doc!
Thanks, I really appreciate that!
Wow! This video was great! Most excellent narration! I could have listened for hours!
Wow, thank you!
what a great video!
Great video
Glad you enjoyed it
I really loved this, thank you !
Fantastic, thanks! Watch Part 2 here czcams.com/video/V9LQ2oWZlZI/video.html
Great series so far
Thanks Devi--I had so much info/footage I had to spread it out!
Cool!
Great video !
Thanks!
imo, it’s my 2nd or 3rd favorite city in the US. Cheap for a big globally renown city (though lower wages), good transit/walking/biking by American standards, relatively clean for a big city and doesn’t smell like nyc. Has a unique story, identity, and architecture as a pioneer of skyscrapers alongside nyc.
Only complaints would be transit frequency and crime/poverty in the south side, but other than that it’s a beautiful city.
Totally agree, and will dig into how/why it built the first skyscraper in the world in one of the next parts.
Chicago southside native here...there are good parts and bad parts, just like anywhere.
I love my city.
The most American city
Seems that way to me too.
Nailed this!! A mini doc version of william cronons Natures Metropolis essentially!!
:)
Beautiful video
So nice
you do good work.
Thank you! Cheers!
good。
Great video, when does part 2 come out?
Out now! czcams.com/video/V9LQ2oWZlZI/video.html
SWEET HOME CHICAGO!
❤
My dad has been to Chicago
Yo yay 😊😊
Ahhhhhhh back when America made things #MadeInAmerica 🇺🇸
Whats the Name of the First Song?
Awesome! When will part 2 come out?
Thanks--next week!
Watch the local news at your own risk. It can change your perception of things pretty quickly.
Are you my long lost cousin?
Probably
@TDC_TheDocumentaryChannel Yo what's up I was not expecting you to reply, nice documentaries btw.
can you please do Johannesburg next am begging you
It's definitely on my list--not next, but not too long.
❤❤❤❤❤❤🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉😮😮😮😮😮
Watch_Dogs moment
The Crossroads of America would like to have a work with your incorrect title. Indiana is the crossroads of America
Which part will you discuss the Real Chicago? The corruption, the crime rate - to include the hourly gun violence car jackings and out of control homeless population. Not to mention the HORRIBLE gang infestation. Asking for a friend. And yes I have been there multiple times infact I used to live outside East Saint Louis. The overwhelming odor is something you can never forget. Before I ever go back hell will freeze over. Otherwise good story.
Nobody focus on the negative and you’re just a visitor and a news watcher, I’ve been here my entire life 3rd generation Chicagoan. You don’t have to visit but don’t be a negative Nancy on a place you have barely spent any time in.
@@iwouldliketoorderanumber1b79 lifelong Chicagoan here - seems like to some people the "real" Chicago is the negative side of the city. they cant accept that awesomeness is also there.
get over it it's a huge city things like these happen in real big cities Chicago is not there only one
@@Rattler808 they are just so bored in their small town that they have nothing better to do because nothing interesting remotely happens where they are.
Best part of Chicago was seeing it in the mirror and knowing I was getting away from all their traffic 😂
Boooo
@@cmcdnc9561 👻👻👻👻
Chiraq
🤫👍
still has polluted lake and a bit ffd storm water system
yes but it's much much better these days and huge mega project is in the world yet again to improve it even further
Look up the "Deep Tunnel Project of Chicago" (perhaps you know of it?). A series of deep tunnels to funnel street/sewer run-off especially during heavy rains rather than overflowing into the river and even lake. That began in the 70s and nearly complete as it had quarries outside the city that are added as they get quarried out and become holding basins till the excess water can go thru the filtration plants. The Last quarry is last to be included..... Seen as one of the largest projects in the world undertaken costing billions over these decades now. It could have been a awesome subway system otherwise.
Nothing is foolproof though.... but many basements are less likely to food and why so many get finished in the city .... still there are areas that it did not fully fix
and the city still has its combined street and sewer system as many older cities did. That was seen as too costly to redo vs the tunnels. Next is removing areas of lead pipes from mains to homes that if not disturbed are generally fine.... some though get disturbed and moneys also in the Federal Infrastructure Bill the past the other year for bridges and highways some for transit and clean energy and still will take perhaps a couple decades to do the replacement of pipes.
Many neighborhoods already got new gas lines and new sidewalks and curbs out of the deal.... should have been combined with the lead pipe removal though but guess funding did not coincide.
Proof of a cleaner river is 60+species of fish have returned also and river more for recreation especially downtown also because of it.
The crossroads of the US*
*America. Cope, Britbong.
Then what’s the crossroads of the Americas? lol
@@SvSGaming Indiana
Also known as the most segregated city in America.
Crime and corruption