From Garfield ‘L’ to Blue Line Rapid Transit - Dispatch 11 covers the radical transformation of Chicago’s West Side transportation corridor, triggered by the coming of the Eisenhower superhighway. Today’s modern Blue Line runs in a highway median, rather than on an elevated structure. 

From Garfield ‘L’ to Blue Line Rapid Transit - Dispatch 11 tells the story of the transformation through two hundred photos and maps. You will discover the story of how a historic 'L' and interurban corridor through Chicago's West Side was transformed into today's Eisenhower Expressway and its pioneering median rapid transit line. In the late 1800s Daniel Burnham (architect and city planner) proposed that Congress Street heading west from downtown Chicago be made into a parkway. In addition, the Metropolitan West Side Elevated Railroad (the Met) build its right-a-way westward on a private right-of-way alongside Congress Street. There are pictures and maps showing the original Metropolitan Elevated Railroad line before, during and after the construction of the Eisenhower Express. During construction, the tracks were built alongside the construction route. The Forest Park Terminal configuration had to be changed numerous times before, during and after the completion of the highway. The book includes pictures of the Chicago, Aurora, and Elgin Railroad, which ran on the Metro tracks. 

The Shore Line Interurban Historical Society that published From Garfield ‘L’ to Blue Line Rapid Transit - Dispatch 11, is a non-profit organization that publishes a quarterly magazine and dispatches about urban, suburban, and interurban passenger rail service in the Chicago Hub region. For more information on this organization or to join visit their website at www.shore-line.org. The mission of the Shore Line Interurban Historical Society is to preserve the history of urban, suburban, and interurban passenger railroads in the upper Midwest. 

If you want to know more about the growth of railroad passenger transportation in Chicago, you will want to add From Garfield ‘L’ to Blue Line Rapid Transit - Dispatch 11 to your historical book collection. The Shore Line Interurban Historical Society has published ten other Dispatches about Chicago Railroading. They are for sale on this website.