Van Buren Street Tunnel

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.

Famous quotes containing the words van, buren, street and/or tunnel:

    I know that Europe’s wonderful, yet something seems to lack;
    The Past is too much with her, and the people looking back.
    —Henry Van Dyke (1852–1933)

    There is no end to the undeserved misery and mischief it could create.
    —Abigail Van Buren (b. 1918)

    If you have only one smile in you, give it to the people you love. Don’t be surly at home, then go out in the street and start grinning “Good morning” at total strangers.
    Maya Angelou (b. 1928)

    It is the light
    At the end of the tunnel as it might be seen
    By him looking out somberly at the shower,
    The picture of hope a dying man might turn away from,
    Realizing that hope is something else, something concrete
    You can’t have.
    John Ashbery (b. 1927)