Posted June 24, 20168 yr Chicago Was Raised Over Four Feet in the 19th Century to Build Its Sewer Sarah Zhang In the middle of the 19th century, Chicago embarked on a quest to literally lift itself out of the mud. Water couldn’t drain from the low-lying city, so its streets became impassable swamps. The most reasonable solution, Chicago decided, was just to raise the whole goddamn city by 4 to 14 feet. Unlike most other cities, Chicago sat just a few feet above the water level of Lake Michigan. Water flows down, so building a system that properly drained all of Chicago’s stormwater and sewage would required a whole lot of digging. That was deemed too expensive. The city was naturally lifted up instead. Following a plan outlined by the Chicago Board of Sewerage Commissioners in 1855, the city passed an ordinance to raise the grade level of streets downtown and along the river. Over the next two decades, the city gradually grew taller. Buildings were jacked up, new foundations laid underneath, and the streets filled in with dirt after the new sewer pipes were installed. http://factually.gizmodo.com/chicago-was-raised-more-than-4-feet-in-the-1800s-to-bui-1646409024
June 25, 20168 yr Lots of this still exists in the victorian neighborhoods of Chicago, Wicker Park, Noble Squre and Pilsen I believe have a few of these streets. Here's a good example, note how the building goes below the street and the entrance is actually on the second floor: https://www.google.com/maps/@41.9099895,-87.6664629,3a,75y,125.68h,90.9t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sHx2ZhgDeILTdsLgrSY2tJA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
June 25, 20168 yr That is wild! Thanks for the OP and for the streetview example. Yeah isn't that something! Someone said Chicago will always find the most ridiculously expensive solution to any problem lol. p.s. here's the reddit link where I found this article, some interesting comments
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