Lasalle Street car

[lilssridah]

I was told that years ago there were tunnels that went under the chicago river on Lasalle, Washington and Van buren. Were those ever used for CTA or CRT? Also Is there any access to those tunnels that went under chicago river? Have any of you guys been down there or knew someone who did. I think its great chicago transportation history.

[Busjack]

20 minutes ago, lilssridah said:

I was told that years ago there were tunnels that went under the chicago river on Lasalle, Washington and Van buren. Were those ever used for CTA or CRT? Also Is there any access to those tunnels that went under chicago river? Have any of you guys been down there or knew someone who did. I think its great chicago transportation history.

They were used only by CSL. The portal in the middle of LaSalle north of the river is still there, but apparently is now used as an entrance to a parking garage. The portal to the Washington tunnel is supposedly under the middle lane under the Ogilvie Station viaduct. As far as one can tell, the Van Buren tunnel was obliterated by Sears (Wills) Tower.

[Mr Downtown]

The tunnels predate even cable cars by two decades.  The Washington Street tunnel opened in 1869 and LaSalle Street in 1871.  These were merely pedestrian and vehicular tunnels, occasioned because the bridges were open so frequently.  They had fallen out of use when the cable cars were introduced, and proved the perfect solution to the bridge problem. In 1891-92 a third street railway tunnel was built just north of Van Buren Street.

After the Chicago River was convincingly reversed in 1900, the water flow scoured the riverbed and exposed the tops of the LaSalle and Washington tunnels.  In a remarkable bit of engineering legerdemain, these were rebuilt at a lower level by lowering the floors and then the roofs, keeping them watertight all the while.

As for the precise locations of the streetcar tunnels, the Washington tunnel lay under Washington Street, with with center entrance portals east of Clinton and west of Franklin.  The LaSalle tunnel lay directly under LaSalle (a little east of the modern centerline), with portals north of Randolph and north of Kinzie.  The "Van Buren" tunnel was 120 feet north of Van Buren with portals east of Clinton (under the L platform) and west of Franklin.

That portal in LaSalle south of Kinzie is just a connection down to Carroll Street.  The streetcar tunnel portal was in the next block, north of Kinzie.  The south end of the LaSalle tunnel was cut off when the subway was built under Lake Street in 1939.

The Washington Street tunnel closed in 1954.  Its west portal was visible underneath the North Western Station trainshed viaduct until it was decked over in the 1980s.

The Van Buren tunnel was closed to regular traffic in 1924, but was used for training and emergencies until 1952.  Both portals have been sealed, but there have been occasional discussions of using it as part of a pedway link to Union Station.

A bit about the tunnels from the Encyclopedia of Chicago.

An interesting article about the tunnels is Piehl, Frank J.  "Our Forgotten Streetcar Tunnels," Chicago History, Fall 1975.  More detail about the 1910s lowering can be found in  Artingstall, William. "Chicago River Tunnels—Their History and Method of Reconstruction," Journal of the Western Society of Engineers, Nov. 1911.

[andrethebusman]

Washington St's west end was last used for parking for the firehouse that stood at Washington and Clinton. The tunnel itself was flooded, and you could only go in maybe a half block before you hit water. After the firehouse closed, nobody used it for anything, and when Washington was redone in the area, the portal was decked over.