by Justin Franz/photos as noted
Chicago Union Station. Trains Editor David P. Morgan once compared it to a holy place of worship, and if Chicago is America’s railroad capital, then Union Station would undoubtedly be a fitting National Cathedral.
Outside, set against a backdrop of towering glass skyscrapers, Union Station’s stone pillars resemble something from the Roman Empire. Embedded in the high cornerstones are clocks announcing Elgin – Central Time, a nod to the railroad watchmaker located northwest of the city and the railroad’s impact on establishing time zones. In the glass windows are the names of the railroads that built and once served this storied terminal: Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific; Chicago, Burlington & Quincy; Pennsylvania Railroad’s subsidiaries Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis and Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago; and the tiny Chicago & Alton, which didn’t have an ownership stake but was a tenant of the others.
But beyond those heavy doors along South Canal Street lies the real magic. Inside the Great Hall, light from the towering barrel-vaulted skylight illuminates one of railroading’s finest spaces. The concrete pillars of the exterior have been replaced with towering marble ones that encircle the 20,972-square-foot space. Atop the pillars are intricate stone carvings, and on two are statues by American sculptor Henry Hering titled “Day” and “Night.” One figure holds an owl, while the other has a rooster, an unsubtle reference to the night-and-day pace of railroading. But perhaps the most important statue of all is also the simplest — a gold-plated post in the middle of the hall with a sign that reads “To Trains.” While the Great Hall is a setting fit for a papal conclave, the real action takes place one story below on the platforms.
ABOVE: Pennsylvania and Chicago, Burlington & Quincy trains mingle on the south side of Chicago Union Station in this August 1964 scene. This view would be all but impossible to capture now because it is covered by a building (not to mention that the photographer has wandered well beyond the platform to capture it). —John E. Gruber photo, Center for Railroad Art & Photography collection
A century after the completion of Chicago Union Station, this grand building continues to serve as the beating heart of railroading in the American Heartland. From here, more than 20,000 Amtrak trains and 77,000 Metra commuter trains arrive or depart annually (not counting position moves), carrying more than 38 million passengers each year.
Simply put, 100 years after it opened, the excitement and drama of railroading are still being preached from this storied space in the heart of America’s railroad capital.
‘The World’s Foremost Terminal’
In 1897, English journalist G.W. Steevens summarized the chaos of Chicago like this: “Chicago! Chicago, queen and guttersnipe of cities, cynosure and cesspool of the world! Not if I had a hundred tongues, everyone shouting a different language in a different key, could I do justice for her splendid chaos. The most beautiful and the most squalid. The most American of cities. Where in all the world can words be found for such paradox and incongruity? Someday, Chicago will turn her savagery into order and cooperation and she will become the greatest, as already she is the most amazing city in the world.”
ABOVE: In the morning and evening, Chicago Union Station is a scene of constant movement, with passengers rushing to and from their trains and with trains arriving and departing from multiple tracks at once. Passengers are waiting for a Metra train to pull in from the Roosevelt Road coach yard on the afternoon of April 17, 2019. With the exception of the Metra logos on the sides of these gallery cars, this scene has changed little in the last few decades. —Todd Halamka photo
While Steevens mused on the city itself, the passage also described its chaotic web of railroads. Chicago became the crossroads of American railroading due to its geography; on one side, it had easy access to the shipping lanes of the Great Lakes, and on the other, flat and fertile land ideal for railroad construction. The city’s first railroad was Galena & Chicago Union (predecessor to Chicago & North Western), built to connect lead mines in the northwest corner of the state with the Great Lakes. In fall 1848, the railroad opened Chicago’s first station, a simple wooden structure not far from the Chicago River, west of what is now Canal Street and south of Kinzie Street. In the decades that followed the construction of Galena & Chicago Union, the Windy City became a spiderweb of rail lines with routes converging on the metropolis from nearly every direction.
By the 20th century, more than two dozen railroads were operating on thousands of miles of track within the city. To accommodate the hundreds of passenger trains and tens of thousands of riders who arrived or departed from downtown Chicago every day, six major stations were constructed: Central, Dearborn, Grand Central, LaSalle, Chicago & North Western, and Union Depot. The cluster of depots around downtown meant that if you were traveling through Chicago, you not only had to change trains but also probably had to go to an entirely different station. That wasn’t the only issue facing the city at the turn of the 20th century, however.
ABOVE: The exterior of Union Station on South Canal Street is lit up on the evening of April 18, 2011. —Otto M. Vondrak photo
In 1906, the Merchants Club hired architect Daniel H. Burnham (who, a decade earlier, had designed Chicago’s 1893 World’s Fair) to create a plan to improve the city. The result was the 1909 Plan of Chicago, one of the country’s first major city planning documents, which called for new and wider streets, parks, civic buildings, and improved harbor and railroad facilities, most notably consolidating the six stations into one, ideally west of the Chicago River.
While the 1909 Plan of Chicago suggested a different location for this centralized station, the most logical choice was near Union Depot (opened in 1882), primarily because it wouldn’t require major track changes on the north and south approaches. Union Depot had been utilized by Pennsylvania; Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul; Chicago & Alton; and Chicago, Burlington & Quincy. By the 1910s, however, it often became overcrowded and could not meet the demands of a growing city. In 1913, the Chicago Union Station Company was incorporated to construct a new Union Station. The company’s stock was divided among Pennsylvania, Milwaukee, and Burlington, although Pennsy was the dominant player. J.J. Turner, vice president of Pennsylvania Lines West, was named the company’s first president. Graham, Anderson, Probst & White was hired to design the new station; the firm was led by Ernest Graham, who had been a business partner of Burnham, who passed away in 1912, three years after his Plan of Chicago was released…
