Publisher's Synopsis
At the dawn of the 21st Century, the Chicago Elevated or "L" was in the midst of a major transition. Every elevated line had either been completely rebuilt & renovated or was about to be. Dating to 1892, Chicago's famed elevated railroads had long since fallen into disrepair and either had to be rebuilt or torn down. Between 1994 and 1996, much to the consternation of the people who used the route, the South Side and Lake Street Ls of the Green Line had been closed for extensive rebuilding and repair. When in the spring of 2000 it was determined that the West Side's Douglas L was in similar need of a rebuild, it was decided to keep the trains running while the work took place so as to avoid the public outcry that had accompanied the Lake Street and South Side Lines closings. Yet by this time the Douglas L was in too great a state of disrepair to be saved as it was; necessitating that the line be completely torn down and an entirely new structure & stations be built in its place. The photographs in this book capture the Douglas L in its final months of operation as it was as well as the beginning of its renovation. The photos in this book also document the Paulina Street Connector before it was reintegrated into the transit system as the new Pink Line and the ancient Harrison Street Curve in the final years before it was torn down and replaced. This piece is essentially a written time capsule of the Chicago "L" in transition; a brief snapshot in time when it still had one foot in the 19th Century and the other in the 21st Century. This is the Chicago "L" in those final years when it was an antiquated relic of the past; before its ornate station houses which heralded its arrival in the 1890s gave way to the wrecker's torch for the sake of progress and making the "L" into a modern day rapid transit system that is the pride of Chicago and the Midwest.
