Day 51: Getting into the Loop

     The story of elevated mass transit in the city of Chicago goes back more than 120 years, and one of the stations that has been around ever since Day 1 is the one that we'll be talking about today.  On June 6, 1892, the Roosevelt station opened as part of the Chicago and South Side Rapid Transit Railroad, the first of its kind in the city.  In 1907, the station was rebuilt to accommodate an expansion in the South Side Line.  In 1924, the South Side Rapid Transit Railroad was absorbed into the Chicago Rapid Transit Company, a consortium of different public transit outfits headed up by mogul Samuel Insull(who is better known today as the man who put up the Civic Opera House).  After World War II, the CRTC was falling on hard times, so the decision was made in 1947 to combine the CRTC along with other Chicago transit companies to create the Chicago Transit Authority, which still exists to this day.  On August 1, 1949, the Roosevelt elevated station was closed as part of the CTA's introduction of alternating stop service.  However, even after the abandonment, the station was still used as a terminal for the Chicago North Shore Line.  After the Line went defunct in 1963, the Roosevelt station was abandoned.

     However, that was not the end of CTA service at Roosevelt.  There was another Roosevelt station, this one devoted to the Red Line.  Formerly known as the State Street Subway, the line was built in 1939, along with the Roosevelt/State station.  In a unique characteristic, the station is completely self-contained, unlike the 7-block Downtown mega-platform.  In October of 1943, there was an informational booklet that described the Roosevelt station like this: "Utility and beauty are blended in the modern design of mezzanine stations.  Fluorescent lighting... provides unexcelled illumination without shadows and glare."  About 15 years ago, the Roosevelt station was renovated to make it look much more pleasant.

     In 1987, work was began on the Southwest Rapid Transit line, which was to connect the Southwest Side to the rest of the city.  The project was able to use old railroad rights-of-way, including those previously used by the Illinois Central Railroad.  To make the connection to the Loop, the new line used the old tracks that were put up by the South Side Line at the turn of the century.  Along with this, a new elevated station was built at Roosevelt, and officially reopened on November 1, 1993.  The biggest difference between the new Roosevelt station and the other stations on the now color-named Orange Line is that being in the middle of the city, the station doesn't have space for a park'n'ride lot. Also, the station was unique in the fact that it was one of the first to mark a transition from in-person fare collection to automated transit cards.  The new station also features a second exit on the opposite side of the street.  This past year, the auxiliary exit was renovated to also include an entrance to the station.

     One of the more ambitious projects in the station's history came in 2002, when an effort was undertaken to finally link up the subway and elevated stations at Roosevelt.  The new transfer tunnel was finally unveiled in December of 2002.  The tunnel features a walking timeline displaying the history of the world, in part a nod to the Museum Campus, which is a mere half-mile from the station.