Chicago didn't fuck around when it came to ambitious 19th century engineering: <a href="http://99percentinvisible.org/post/57747785222/episode-86-reversal-of-fortune" rel="nofollow">http://99percentinvisible.org/post/57747785222/episode-86-re...</a> (reversing the Chicago river--this has a lot of great old pictures).<p>Although, see: <a href="http://chicagoist.com/2013/04/19/photos_what_re-reversing_the_chicag.php#photo-1" rel="nofollow">http://chicagoist.com/2013/04/19/photos_what_re-reversing_th...</a> (reversing it back temporarily this year to account for flooding).<p>In school we used to say "aerospace engineers make bombs; civil engineers make targets." But in fact civil engineering is really cool, especially in terms of what they were able to do before modern technology: <a href="http://www.colorcoat-online.com/blog/index.php/2011/05/engineering-the-history-12-projects-that-changed-the-world" rel="nofollow">http://www.colorcoat-online.com/blog/index.php/2011/05/engin...</a>.
North American cities used to be enormously ambitious (see also, for example, Boston's Back Bay). Contrast the fear, trepidation and status-quo obstructionism that characterizes municipal affairs today.
I took a tour of Seattle, and the guides discussed Seattle going through a similar transition. Essentially the whole city was raised by one story. But the roads were done first, creating a sort of "waffle-like" city, where crossing the street as a pedestrian meant climbing a ladder, crossing the street, and descending the ladder on the other side. People were sometimes injured or killed by falling down the ladder, someone else falling down the ladder, or things falling onto them from street level.<p>After the sidewalks were raised to match the streets, the underground sidewalks were kept open for a time, until (predictably) problems started with drugs and prostitution, etc. They were closed in the early 20th century but you can tour them today.
Living here in Chicago it's neat to see the vestiges of this still around - like 'vaulted sidewalks', where the current sidewalk sits over 5 feet of air, and then the old sidewalk is down below:<p><a href="http://gapersblock.com/airbags/archives/city_streets_how_chicago_raised_itself_out_of_the_mud_and_astonished_the_world/" rel="nofollow">http://gapersblock.com/airbags/archives/city_streets_how_chi...</a>
This practice was not unique to the City of Chicago.<p>The city of Naples was rebuilt at great expense after the a terrible cholera epidemic in 1884 carried off a large number of victims. In response the government funded major effort to raise the city's streets as proscribed by the then current Miasmatic Theory of Disease. The thinking was along of the lines of low lying 'bad air' caused illnesses and thus the raising of the city's infrastructure would improve the general health.<p>Details: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miasma_theory_of_disease" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miasma_theory_of_disease</a>
Definitely listen to the Freakonomics podcast on Chicago's quintessential role in developing the US as a country and economic giant - well worth the 30min or so, and based on a book by Thomas Dyja: <a href="http://freakonomics.com/2013/08/15/the-middle-of-everywhere-a-new-freakonomics-radio-podcast/" rel="nofollow">http://freakonomics.com/2013/08/15/the-middle-of-everywhere-...</a>
Chicago was recently used as an example of a city that is so paved over it can't drain properly. <a href="http://www.theatlanticcities.com/neighborhoods/2013/05/way-we-build-cities-making-them-flood/5590/" rel="nofollow">http://www.theatlanticcities.com/neighborhoods/2013/05/way-w...</a> I wonder if that's a valid interpretation, given its natural drainage problems?
Where are the technical details on how this was accomplished? The wikipedia article said what was done, but didn't go into how.<p>All the references appear to be just newspaper articles or some layman's explanation. Are there any meaty technical discussions of these accomplishments, especially the raising on an entire city block.
This is totally fascinating, but I'm still not sure I get the infrastructural context. Were traditional storm sewers impractical for Chicago at the time specifically because of the city's elevation?
Here are a few great Chicago resources. Archive of photos here: <a href="http://chicagopast.com/" rel="nofollow">http://chicagopast.com/</a> Video Archives here: <a href="http://mediaburn.org/" rel="nofollow">http://mediaburn.org/</a> This is a personal favorite: Chicago Culture "sitting on the front stoop" enjoy! <a href="http://mediaburn.org/video/ben-hollis-stoop-talk-1-for-weekend-tv/" rel="nofollow">http://mediaburn.org/video/ben-hollis-stoop-talk-1-for-weeke...</a>
People interested in economics, history, Chicago, or the midwest in general should definitely check out "Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West" by William Cronon.
Galveston underwent a similar transition of two stories after the catastrophic damage of a hurricane in the year 1900, in order that it would never be vulnerable again†<p>†Unless the city expanded outside the elevated seawall, which it did... for a time. Predictably, another hurricane has corrected this oversight recently.<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galveston,_Texas#Hurricane_of_1900_and_recovery" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galveston,_Texas#Hurricane_of_1...</a>
I just saw a great picture of this from 1885: <a href="http://calumet412.com/post/58699298036/street-grade-elevation-work-at-an-undisclosed" rel="nofollow">http://calumet412.com/post/58699298036/street-grade-elevatio...</a>