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Photo, Print, Drawing Northwestern Elevated Railroad, Roughly the extent of track extending from North Wells Street & West Merchandise Mart Plaza (on the south) to Linden Avenue & 4th Street (on the north, in Wilmette), and Lawrence Avenue & Kimball Avenue (on the west), Chicago, Cook County, IL

[ Data Pages from Survey HAER IL-1197  ]

About this Item

Title

  • Northwestern Elevated Railroad, Roughly the extent of track extending from North Wells Street & West Merchandise Mart Plaza (on the south) to Linden Avenue & 4th Street (on the north, in Wilmette), and Lawrence Avenue & Kimball Avenue (on the west), Chicago, Cook County, IL

Names

  • Historic American Engineering Record, creator
  • Northwestern Elevated Railroad Company
  • Yerkes, Charles T
  • Columbia Construction Company
  • Chicago Transit Authority
  • Waddell, John Alexander Low
  • Chicago Transit Authority, sponsor
  • T.Y. Lin International, Inc., contractor
  • AltusWorks, Inc., contractor
  • Dirk Matthews Photography, contractor
  • Pienton, Paula, project manager
  • Stoner, Ellen, editor
  • Utter, Scott, project manager
  • Shipton, Kelsey, historian
  • Matthews, Dirk, photographer
  • Horbacz, Christopher, delineator
  • McPartland, Mary, transmitter

Created / Published

  • Documentation compiled after 1968

Headings

  • -  elevated railroads
  • -  transportation
  • -  steel
  • -  concrete
  • -  transportation engineering
  • -  Illinois--Cook County--Chicago

Latitude / Longitude

  • 41.887971,-87.634009

Notes

  • -  Significance: The Northwestern Elevated Railroad's (Northwestern Elevated) North Main Line track structure (HAER No. IL-1197-A, HAER No. IL-1197-B, and HAER No. IL-1197-C) was recommended eligible under the National Register of Historic Places Criterion A as a key element in the development of Chicago's North Side. Selected sections of elevated steel track structure (HAER No. IL-1197-A) were recommended eligible under Criterion C as a good example of the new riveted steel plate technology developed at the turn of the twentieth century.
  • -  Survey number: HAER IL-1197
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1900-1922 Initial Construction

Medium

  • Data Page(s): 13

Call Number/Physical Location

  • HAER IL-1197

Source Collection

  • Historic American Engineering Record (Library of Congress)

Repository

Control Number

  • il1025

Rights Advisory

Online Format

  • pdf

Rights & Access

The Library of Congress does not own rights to material in its collections. Therefore, it does not license or charge permission fees for use of such material and cannot grant or deny permission to publish or otherwise distribute the material.

Ultimately, it is the researcher's obligation to assess copyright or other use restrictions and obtain permission from third parties when necessary before publishing or otherwise distributing materials found in the Library's collections.

For information about reproducing, publishing, and citing material from this collection, as well as access to the original items, see: Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record/Historic American Landscape Survey (HABS/HAER/HALS) Collection - Rights and Restrictions Information

  • Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on images made by the U.S. Government; images copied from other sources may be restricted. https://aj.sunback.homes/rr/print/res/114_habs.html
  • Reproduction Number: ---
  • Call Number: HAER IL-1197
  • Access Advisory: ---

Obtaining Copies

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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Historic American Engineering Record, Creator, Northwestern Elevated Railroad Company, Charles T Yerkes, Columbia Construction Company, Chicago Transit Authority, John Alexander Low Waddell, Sponsor Chicago Transit Authority, et al., Matthews, Dirk, photographer. Northwestern Elevated Railroad, Roughly the extent of track extending from North Wells Street & West Merchandise Mart Plaza on the south to Linden Avenue & 4th Street on the north, in Wilmette, and Lawrence Avenue & Kimball Avenue on the west, Chicago, Cook County, IL. Illinois Wilmette Chicago Cook County, 1968. editeds by Stoner, Ellen, translateds by Mcpartland, Marymitter Documentation Compiled After. Photograph. https://aj.sunback.homes/item/il1025/.

APA citation style:

Historic American Engineering Record, C., Northwestern Elevated Railroad Company, Yerkes, C. T., Columbia Construction Company, Chicago Transit Authority, Waddell, J. A. L. [...] Horbacz, C., Matthews, D., photographer, Stoner, E., ed. (1968) Northwestern Elevated Railroad, Roughly the extent of track extending from North Wells Street & West Merchandise Mart Plaza on the south to Linden Avenue & 4th Street on the north, in Wilmette, and Lawrence Avenue & Kimball Avenue on the west, Chicago, Cook County, IL. Illinois Wilmette Chicago Cook County, 1968. McPartland, M., trans Documentation Compiled After. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://aj.sunback.homes/item/il1025/.

MLA citation style:

Historic American Engineering Record, Creator, et al., photographer by Matthews, Dirk. Northwestern Elevated Railroad, Roughly the extent of track extending from North Wells Street & West Merchandise Mart Plaza on the south to Linden Avenue & 4th Street on the north, in Wilmette, and Lawrence Avenue & Kimball Avenue on the west, Chicago, Cook County, IL. ed by Stoner, Ellen, trans by Mcpartland, Marymitter Documentation Compiled After. Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <aj.sunback.homes/item/il1025/>.