Union Elevated Railroad, State-Lake Station, State & Lake Streets, Chicago, Cook County, IL

Significance: Significant in the history of American industrial archaeology, the Union Loop Elevated is also important for its association with financier and traction magnate, Charles T. Yerkes and for its role in defining and shaping Chicago's downtown. According the Theodore Anton Sande, author or Industrial Archeology: A New Look at the American Heritage, to "the industrial archeologist, the Chicago Loop provides an ideal case study (1976, 113). Having made its first run in 1897, the Union Loop Elevated is one of only a few extant examples of transit systems that have remained in continuous operation for nearly a century. A "massive web of riveted steel girders and shining tracks," the Loop Elevated was designed by John Alexander Low Waddell, a Canadian-born engineer who played an important role in the history of American bridge design.
Survey number: HAER IL-1-H