In the middle of the 19th Century, the powers that be in Illinois wanted to link up the northern and southern parts of the state via rail. Eventually in 1850, President Millard Filmore(rolls right off of the tongue, doesn't it?) signed a land-grant bill to allow construction to proceed. Finally, in 1851, the Illinois General Assembly chartered the Illinois Central Railroad. Construction commenced immediately, and upon its completion in 1856, the IC was the longest railroad in the world. During construction, a branch line was built connecting Centralia(a town which was named for the IC) to Chicago (what at that point had only been around for 14 years). The idea was to take the line into the city along the lakefront. In a somewhat fortuitous coincidence, the city of Chicago was looking to put a breakwater in on its lakefront, so the IC offered to pay for it if they would be allowed to build tracks into the city. On its way into the city, the IC passed through the up-and-coming town of Hyde Park(which did not become part of Chicago until 1889). So in 1854, the IC inaugurated its passenger service into the city, running into its downtown station on offshore trestles in Lake Michigan.
In 1871, the Great Chicago Fire tore through the city while leaving the South Side virtually untouched. This allowed for city dwellers who had lost their homes to the flames to easily relocate to the South Side, which just so happened to be directly in the path of the IC. In addition to that, the fire created a lot of debris. So much so that all of the debris was dumped into the lake, forming what would become Grant Park, but also making the formerly offshore IC tracks shore-based once again. In 1893, the Colombian Exposition came to Chicago, and with the White City being located in the general vicinity of Hyde Park, the IC once again rose to prominence. In fact, it got so big that by the turn of the 20th Century, there were 300 trains running every single day. All of that pollution made the city council mandate that the IC electrify its line. By 1926, the IC had electrified its entire operation in the Chicago Metro area.
After the electrification, the IC continued to have several more decades of success, but then fell upon hard times (as did all the other old passenger railways). It was at this point, in 1974, when the state of Illionis formed the Regional Transportation Authority(RTA) to oversee and subsidize commuter rail in the metro area. Unfortunately, this proved to be insufficient, and the old railway icons began to fall victim to bankruptcy. This forced the RTA to go from merely supporting the railroads, to outright running them. To better facilitate this, Metra was formed in 1983. In 1987, the IC sold its Chicago commuter system to Metra for $28 Million. Upon the sale, Metra renamed the line the Metra Electric.
There are two things about this line that make it unique. First off, it is the only Metra line that runs off of electric power. Also, it is the only Metra line that is served by two separate downtown terminals: Van Buren Street Station and Millenium Station. One more fact: Metra does not refer to it's lines by color, but the time tables for the Electric line are colored orange in deference to one of the IC's most well-known trains, the Panama Limited
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