The Van Buren Street Tunnel was Chicago's third tunnel under the Chicago River. Built in 1891–92 just north of Van Buren Street, it was 1,514 feet long and was used for cable car service until 1906.
The reversing of the Chicago River exposed the tunnel in 1900 and a wider, deeper replacement was built under the original tunnel and opened to electric streetcar service in 1911-1912.
The tunnel was closed in 1924.
Plans were made to incorporate the tunnel into a high-level subway to run under Jackson Street between Clinton Street and Grand Park, along with parallel route under Washington Street, utilising that street's similar tunnel under the river. Both would be tied into another subway tunnel to be dug under Clinton Street. The only construction accomplished in advance of these plans were the pair of portals in the Eisenhower Expressway median, 200 feet east of Halsted Street, constructed in 1952 simultaneously with the pair of portals for the Blue Line, and the double-wide station built at Peoria Street in 1964 to accommodate the anicipated platform north of the UIC-Halsted platform for the Blue Line. In 1951-1952, the plans were modified to merge the Clinton and Jackson routes and convert the Washington Street subway as a busway rather than as a train tunnel. The plan was cancelled in April 1962, although the design and placement of the Peoria Street stationhouse remained unchanged.
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—Abigail Van Buren (b. 1918)
“He has given me six hundred street signs.
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—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“The only way to find out anything about what kinds of lives people led in any given period is to tunnel into their records and to let them speak for themselves.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)