Steam Driven Change

 

Seeing a need to adapt for further development in the opening years of the 20th century, Chicago leaders commissioned a group to make recommendations concerning use of and necessary improvements to the Chicago waterfront.  The commission looked back to the preceding decade of shipping to determine how to proceed.  The period following the Civil War saw many infrastructure changes within the state of Illinois with a focus on the use of Chicago as a hub.  President Polk had vetoed an infrastructure bill in 1848 based on perceived unconstitutionality of the Federal government to interfere in state economic matters.  Despite the president’s objections, the further expansion of the United States into the west would require improvements to the transportation infrastructure.  Using data from the Census Bureau as well as historical shipping numbers from both primary reports and secondary sources, the influence of rail and steam on Chicago can be demonstrated.

In June 1848, Abraham Lincoln, then a representative for Illinois, argued for Federal funding to improve the infrastructure to allow excesses of goods in one location to demanding markets.  Lincoln pointed to the combined benefit of the Erie and Illinois & Michigan canals which joined the Mississippi River Valley with the eastern markets.  The creation of the I&M canal had sparked the transition of Fort Dearborn into the city of Chicago.  While the canal would remain in use through the latter half of the nineteenth century for bulk shipments, the expansion of the rail system would be vital to further growth.  The rising use of the steam engine both on land and water would play key roles in both upcoming conflict between the states and the economic growth of the nation following it.  In the decades that followed the war, the country stretched out across the plains.  This expansion and the associated transportation of material, products, and people passed through the city of Chicago.  Based on census data, Chicago grew from a population of 298,677 in 1870 to 1.6million by 1900.[1][2] During this period, Chicago, originally a frontier fort, grew to become an inland port and shipping hub. 

By the start of the Civil War, a rail network had been completed which connected the entire country from the Atlantic to the Mississippi River.  This transition from waterways to railways had reached some conflict in the 1850s as evidenced by an incident involving the first railroad bridge across the Mississippi and the steamer Effie Afton.  The ensuing court case successfully defended the rights of the railroads to cross the river, opening the Upper Plains for development.  Rail lines provided rapid movement of goods and resources.  The development of this infrastructure had been debated by the federal government as early as 1848.  In 1865, Illinois had 3191 miles of railroads throughout the state.  Lines predominately radiated out from the city of Chicago to all portions of the state and beyond.[3] By 1870, mileage had increased to 4707.  These railways were key to bringing the grain and livestock from the remainder of Illinois and neighboring states to the port for shipping.  By 1890, every county in Illinois was serviced by a portion of the now 10,213 miles of rails.[4] The commission used national data which should the increasing number of acres used for grain production as well as the successive increases in yield.  Corn production alone increased 60 percent in the last two decades of the 19th century to 798 million bushels produced in 1900 nationwide.  41 million bushels were exported overseas.[5] Many of these passed through the Chicago waterfront for distribution.

Like the iron horses that moved people and goods across land, the changing nature of shipping across the Great Lakes through Chicago spurred market growth.  Shipping originally carried on lake schooners was moved by increasingly larger steamships.  By 1898, there were 1796 steamships, totaling 993,644 in tonnage.[6] The steamships transferred their cargos to and from the canal boats or rail cars.  The railways carried raw materials into the city for either use in the growing factories and foundries or to be loaded onto ships for the transit across the Great Lakes.  The Port of Chicago processed stone, wood, coal, and grain from downstate Illinois for the hungry markets of the east.  The highest year of the 19th century was 1889 when 10,994,036 tons of shipping passed through the port, making it the fourth largest port in the country that year.[7] 

The technological changes described, both rail and steamships, provided catalyst for the expansion of Chicago as a major city.  The resources cited demonstrate the correlation of changes in supply flow to city growth. Adaptation to new technology and economic market caused the evolution of the city of Chicago and its waterfront.  By reviewing the data and market trends from the 19th century, further changes, even more ambitious than the original canal and rail system, would be implemented in the coming century.


[1] United States Bureau of the Census, A Compendium of the Ninth Census (June 1, 1870) (Washington, DC: Government Print. Office, 1872), 152.

[2] United States Bureau Of The Census, Thirteenth Census of the United States, 1910. Population by Counties and Minor Civil Divisions, 1910, 1900, 1890 (District of Columbia: Govt. Print. Off., 1912), 128.

[3] Clare E. Griffin, "Some Phases of the Railway History of Illinois since 1870 / by Clare Elmer Griffin" (PhD, University of Illinois, 1918), 3.

[4] Ibid., 16.

[5] Chicago Harbor Commission et al., Report to the Mayor and Aldermen of the City of Chicago (Chicago: H. G. Adair, 1909), 217, http://archive.org/details/reporttomayoran00sikegoog (accessed Aug 29, 2024).

[6] Ibid., 272.

[7] Joshua A. T. Salzmann, Liquid Capital: Making the Chicago Waterfront (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018), 83.

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