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Pleasure Dome (railcar)

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The Pleasure Domes are a fleet of six streamlined dome lounge cars built by Pullman-Standard for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway ("Santa Fe") in 1950. The cars were used exclusively on the Super Chief from their introduction in 1950 until the end of Santa Fe passenger service in 1971. Amtrak retained all six cars and continued to operate them until 1980 when they were retired. All six were preserved. The Pleasure Dome, with its famed "Turquoise Room" private dining room, contributed to the Super Chief s reputation for elegance and luxury.

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69-493: The Pleasure Domes were lounge-dining cars, but with some unusual variations. Most dome lounges had two areas: the dome seating area above, and the lounge area below. The Pleasure Domes added a third area: a private dining room named the "Turquoise Room" which was available by reservation only and could seat 12. Newspaper reports of the 1950s noted that these cars constituted "the first private dining room on wheels." The dome seating area featured parlor car-style swivel chairs. Meals in

138-403: A Democrat, was elected in 1955, in the era of machine politics . In 1956, the city conducted its last major expansion when it annexed the land under O'Hare airport, including a small portion of DuPage County. By the 1960s, white residents in several neighborhoods left the city for the suburban areas – in many American cities, a process known as white flight – as Blacks continued to move beyond

207-685: A Pleasure Dome, which were temporarily disassembled on the Republic Pictures backlot. Amtrak retained the Super Chief almost unchanged after it took over operations in May 1971, including the Pleasure Domes. However, Amtrak could not hope to keep service at the levels previously maintained by the Santa Fe, and relations between the two companies deteriorated. It was Amtrak's decision in early 1974 to remove

276-637: A few items. The Christmas menu for the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway in 1882 listed the following items: Hunter's Soup, Salmon with Hollandaise Sauce, Boned Pheasant in Aspic Jelly, Chicken Salad, Salmis Prairie Chicken, Oyster Patties, Rice Croquette, Roast Beef, English Ribs of Beef, Turkey with Cranberry Sauce, Stuffed Suckling Pig with Applesauce, Antelope Steak with Currant Jelly, potatoes, green peas, tomatoes , sweet potatoes, Mince Pie, Plum Pudding, Cake, Ice Cream , Fruits and coffee. In one of

345-601: A full dining Pullman service on selected trains to the West Country & Wales . Elegance is one of the main words used to describe the concept of dining on a train. Use of fresh ingredients was encouraged whenever possible. Some of the dishes prepared by chefs were: Braised Duck Cumberland, Hungarian Beef Goulash with Potato Dumplings, Lobster Americaine, Mountain Trout Au Bleu, Curry of Lamb Madras, Scalloped Brussels Sprouts, Pecan and Orange Sticks and Pennepicure Pie to name

414-486: A heart attack soon after. Washington was succeeded by 6th ward alderperson Eugene Sawyer , who was elected by the Chicago City Council and served until a special election. Richard M. Daley , son of Richard J. Daley, was elected in 1989. His accomplishments included improvements to parks and creating incentives for sustainable development , as well as closing Meigs Field in the middle of the night and destroying

483-660: A model for the new field of social work . During the 1870s and 1880s, Chicago attained national stature as the leader in the movement to improve public health. City laws and later, state laws that upgraded standards for the medical profession and fought urban epidemics of cholera , smallpox , and yellow fever were both passed and enforced. These laws became templates for public health reform in other cities and states. The city established many large, well-landscaped municipal parks , which also included public sanitation facilities. The chief advocate for improving public health in Chicago

552-472: A new grade with the use of jackscrews for raising buildings. While elevating Chicago, and at first improving the city's health, the untreated sewage and industrial waste now flowed into the Chicago River , and subsequently into Lake Michigan , polluting the city's primary freshwater source. The city responded by tunneling two miles (3.2 km) out into Lake Michigan to newly built water cribs . In 1900,

621-405: A single entity, generally with one car containing a galley as well as table or booth seating and the other car containing table or booth seating only. In the dining cars of Amtrak 's modern bilevel Superliner trains, booth seating on either side of a center aisle occupies almost the entire upper level, with a galley below; food is sent to the upper level on a dumbwaiter . Dining cars enhance

690-504: Is distinct from other railroad food service cars that do not duplicate the full-service restaurant experience, such as buffet cars , cars in which one purchases food from a walk-up counter to be consumed either within the car or elsewhere in the train. Grill cars, in which customers sit on stools at a counter and purchase and consume food cooked on a grill behind the counter are generally considered to be an "intermediate" type of dining car. Before dining cars in passenger trains were common in

759-407: Is known to botanists as Allium tricoccum and known more commonly as "ramps". The first known reference to the site of the current city of Chicago as " Checagou " was by Robert de LaSalle around 1679 in a memoir. Henri Joutel , in his journal of 1688, noted that the eponymous wild "garlic" grew profusely in the area. According to his diary of late September 1687: ... when we arrived at

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828-554: Is routinely ranked among the world's top six busiest airports by passenger traffic , and the region is also the nation's railroad hub. The Chicago area has one of the highest gross domestic products (GDP) of any urban region in the world, generating $ 689 billion in 2018. Chicago's economy is diverse , with no single industry employing more than 14% of the workforce. Chicago is a major destination for tourism , including visitors to its cultural institutions , and Lake Michigan beaches . Chicago's culture has contributed much to

897-604: Is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States . With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 census , it is the third-most populous city in the United States after New York City and Los Angeles . As the seat of Cook County , the second-most populous county in the U.S., Chicago is the center of the Chicago metropolitan area , often colloquially called "Chicagoland" and home to 9.6 million residents. Located on

966-675: The Super Chief . Edwin Kachel was a steward for more than twenty-five years in the Dining-Car Department of the Great Northern Railway . He said that "on a dining car, three elements can be considered -- the equipment, the employee, then passenger." In other words, "the whole is constituted by two-thirds of human parts." As cross-country train travel became more commonplace, passengers began to expect high-quality food to be served at

1035-473: The Black Belt . While home loan discriminatory redlining against blacks continued, the real estate industry practiced what became known as blockbusting , completely changing the racial composition of whole neighborhoods. Structural changes in industry, such as globalization and job outsourcing, caused heavy job losses for lower-skilled workers. At its peak during the 1960s, some 250,000 workers were employed in

1104-699: The Calumet River in the industrial far South Side—flow either entirely or partially through the city. Chicago's history and economy are closely tied to its proximity to Lake Michigan. While the Chicago River historically handled much of the region's waterborne cargo, today's huge lake freighters use the city's Lake Calumet Harbor on the South Side. The lake also provides another positive effect: moderating Chicago's climate, making waterfront neighborhoods slightly warmer in winter and cooler in summer. When Chicago

1173-548: The Chicago School , the development of the City Beautiful movement , and the steel-framed skyscraper . Chicago is an international hub for finance, culture , commerce, industry, education, technology, telecommunications, and transportation . It has the largest and most diverse finance derivatives market in the world, generating 20% of all volume in commodities and financial futures alone. O'Hare International Airport

1242-580: The Great Lakes to connect to the Mississippi River. A flourishing economy brought residents from rural communities and immigrants from abroad. Manufacturing and retail and finance sectors became dominant, influencing the American economy . The Chicago Board of Trade (established 1848) listed the first-ever standardized "exchange-traded" forward contracts, which were called futures contracts . In

1311-525: The Jefferson Township , which now makes up most of Chicago's Northwest Side . The desire to join the city was driven by municipal services that the city could provide its residents. Chicago's flourishing economy attracted huge numbers of new immigrants from Europe and migrants from the Eastern United States . Of the total population in 1900, more than 77% were either foreign-born or born in

1380-503: The Miami , Sauk and Meskwaki peoples in this region. The first known permanent settler in Chicago was trader Jean Baptiste Point du Sable . Du Sable was of African descent, perhaps born in the French colony of Saint-Domingue (Haiti), and established the settlement in the 1780s. He is commonly known as the "Founder of Chicago." In 1795, following the victory of the new United States in

1449-578: The New Negro Movement , in art, literature, and music. Continuing racial tensions and violence, such as the Chicago race riot of 1919 , also occurred. The ratification of the 18th amendment to the Constitution in 1919 made the production and sale (including exportation) of alcoholic beverages illegal in the United States. This ushered in the beginning of what is known as the gangster era, a time that roughly spans from 1919 until 1933 when Prohibition

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1518-803: The Northwest Indian War , an area that was to be part of Chicago was turned over to the U.S. for a military post by native tribes in accordance with the Treaty of Greenville . In 1803, the U.S. Army constructed Fort Dearborn , which was destroyed during the War of 1812 in the Battle of Fort Dearborn by the Potawatomi before being later rebuilt. After the War of 1812, the Ottawa , Ojibwe , and Potawatomi tribes ceded additional land to

1587-438: The Super Chief in 1950. In June 1952, Warner Bros. Pictures released Three for Bedroom "C" , a romantic comedy starring Gloria Swanson , James Warren , Fred Clark , Hans Conried , and Steve Brodie . In the film, an aging movie star (Swanson) hides out in a compartment during a cross-country journey from New York to Los Angeles aboard the Super Chief . For this picture the Santa Fe provided actual railroad cars, including

1656-463: The University of Chicago , Northwestern University , and the University of Illinois Chicago , among other institutions of learning . Professional sports in Chicago include all major professional leagues , including two Major League Baseball teams. The name Chicago is derived from a French rendering of the indigenous Miami–Illinois word shikaakwa for a wild relative of the onion ; it

1725-663: The Washington and Jackson Parks. During World War I and the 1920s there was a major expansion in industry. The availability of jobs attracted African Americans from the Southern United States . Between 1910 and 1930, the African American population of Chicago increased dramatically, from 44,103 to 233,903. This Great Migration had an immense cultural impact, called the Chicago Black Renaissance , part of

1794-490: The 1800s, Chicago became the nation's railroad hub, and by 1910 over 20 railroads operated passenger service out of six different downtown terminals. In 1883, Chicago's railway managers needed a general time convention, so they developed the standardized system of North American time zones . This system for telling time spread throughout the continent. In 1893, Chicago hosted the World's Columbian Exposition on former marshland at

1863-477: The 1850s, Chicago gained national political prominence as the home of Senator Stephen Douglas , the champion of the Kansas–Nebraska Act and the "popular sovereignty" approach to the issue of the spread of slavery. These issues also helped propel another Illinoisan, Abraham Lincoln , to the national stage. Lincoln was nominated in Chicago for U.S. president at the 1860 Republican National Convention , which

1932-681: The 57th mayor of Chicago. Chicago is located in northeastern Illinois on the southwestern shores of freshwater Lake Michigan. It is the principal city in the Chicago Metropolitan Area , situated in both the Midwestern United States and the Great Lakes region . The city rests on a continental divide at the site of the Chicago Portage, connecting the Mississippi River and the Great Lakes watersheds . In addition to it lying beside Lake Michigan, two rivers—the Chicago River in downtown and

2001-455: The Chicago River were devastated; by 1933 over 50% of industrial jobs in the city had been lost, and unemployment rates amongst blacks and Mexicans in the city were over 40%. The Republican political machine in Chicago was utterly destroyed by the economic crisis, and every mayor since 1931 has been a Democrat . From 1928 to 1933, the city witnessed a tax revolt, and the city was unable to meet payroll or provide relief efforts. The fiscal crisis

2070-527: The Mississippi River. In 1871, the Great Chicago Fire destroyed an area about 4 miles (6.4 km) long and 1-mile (1.6 km) wide, a large section of the city at the time. Much of the city, including railroads and stockyards , survived intact, and from the ruins of the previous wooden structures arose more modern constructions of steel and stone. These set a precedent for worldwide construction. During its rebuilding period, Chicago constructed

2139-409: The Pleasure Domes and first class-only dining car (a decision it later reversed) from the Super Chief which provoked the Santa Fe to rescind permission for Amtrak's use of the name. Amtrak eventually retained the Pleasure Domes, but the train now carried the name Southwest Limited . Amtrak eventually retired the domes from the route in the late 1970s. Amtrak sold all six domes to private operators in

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2208-562: The South arrived in the city to work in the steel mills, railroads, and shipping yards. On December 2, 1942, physicist Enrico Fermi conducted the world's first controlled nuclear reaction at the University of Chicago as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project . This led to the creation of the atomic bomb by the United States, which it used in World War II in 1945. Mayor Richard J. Daley ,

2277-579: The Turquoise Room were prepared in an adjoining dining car . The Santa Fe named them "Pleasure Domes" from a line in Samuel Taylor Coleridge 's poem Kubla Khan : In Xanadu did Kubla Khan A stately pleasure-dome decree: Where Alph, the sacred river, ran Through caverns measureless to man     Down to a sunless sea. The Pleasure Domes were the first dome cars the Santa Fe owned and operated when they entered service on

2346-612: The United States in the 1816 Treaty of St. Louis . The Potawatomi were forcibly removed from their land after the 1833 Treaty of Chicago and sent west of the Mississippi River as part of the federal policy of Indian removal . On August 12, 1833, the Town of Chicago was organized with a population of about 200. Within seven years it grew to more than 6,000 people. On June 15, 1835, the first public land sales began with Edmund Dick Taylor as Receiver of Public Monies. The City of Chicago

2415-775: The United States of foreign parentage. Germans , Irish , Poles , Swedes , and Czechs made up nearly two-thirds of the foreign-born population (by 1900, whites were 98.1% of the city's population). Labor conflicts followed the industrial boom and the rapid expansion of the labor pool, including the Haymarket affair on May 4, 1886, and in 1894 the Pullman Strike . Anarchist and socialist groups played prominent roles in creating very large and highly organized labor actions. Concern for social problems among Chicago's immigrant poor led Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr to found Hull House in 1889. Programs that were developed there became

2484-450: The United States, a rail passenger's option for meal service in transit was to patronize one of the roadhouses often located near the railroad's " water stops ". Fare typically consisted of rancid meat, cold beans, and old coffee. Such poor conditions discouraged some from making the journey. Most railroads began offering meal service on trains even before the First transcontinental railroad . By

2553-553: The city include the central business district, called the Loop , and the North, South , and West Sides . The three sides of the city are represented on the Flag of Chicago by three horizontal white stripes. The North Side is the most-densely-populated residential section of the city, and many high-rises are located on this side of the city along the lakefront. The South Side is the largest section of

2622-529: The city was affected by a series of tenant rent strikes , which lead to the formation of the Chicago Tenants Protective association, passage of the Kessenger tenant laws, and of a heat ordinance that legally required flats to be kept above 68 °F during winter months by landlords. Chicago was the first American city to have a homosexual-rights organization. The organization, formed in 1924,

2691-415: The city's first African American woman mayor and its first openly LGBTQ mayor, was elected to succeed Emanuel as mayor in 2019. All three city-wide elective offices were held by women (and women of color) for the first time in Chicago history: in addition to Lightfoot, the city clerk was Anna Valencia and the city treasurer was Melissa Conyears-Ervin . On May 15, 2023, Brandon Johnson assumed office as

2760-424: The city's first female mayor, was elected. She was notable for temporarily moving into the crime-ridden Cabrini-Green housing project and for leading Chicago's school system out of a financial crisis. In 1983, Harold Washington became the first black mayor of Chicago. Washington's first term in office directed attention to poor and previously neglected minority neighborhoods. He was re‑elected in 1987 but died of

2829-515: The convention hall, with anti-war protesters, journalists and bystanders being beaten by police. Major construction projects, including the Sears Tower (now known as the Willis Tower , which in 1974 became the world's tallest building ), University of Illinois at Chicago , McCormick Place , and O'Hare International Airport , were undertaken during Richard J. Daley's tenure. In 1979, Jane Byrne ,

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2898-479: The district and forcing a shutdown of electrical power. The area was shut down for three days and some buildings did not reopen for weeks; losses were estimated at $ 1.95 billion. On February 23, 2011, Rahm Emanuel , a former White House Chief of Staff and member of the House of Representatives , won the mayoral election. Emanuel was sworn in as mayor on May 16, 2011, and won re-election in 2015. Lori Lightfoot ,

2967-576: The early 1980s. The Pleasure Domes remain part of the Super Chief' s legacy of premium rail service. At the former Santa Fe station in Winslow, Arizona (still served by Amtrak), the "Turquoise Room" restaurant at the La Posada Hotel carries on the tradition of elegant dining, albeit in a stationary fashion. By June 2016, the La Posada's owner had acquired one of the Pleasure Domes, which has been moved to

3036-526: The fair was technological innovation over the century since Chicago's founding. During World War II , the city of Chicago alone produced more steel than the United Kingdom every year from 1939 – 1945, and more than Nazi Germany from 1943 – 1945. The Great Migration, which had been on pause due to the Depression, resumed at an even faster pace in the second wave , as hundreds of thousands of blacks from

3105-454: The familiar restaurant experience with the unique visual entertainment of the ever-changing view. While dining cars are less common today than in the past (having been supplemented or in some cases replaced altogether by other types of food-service cars), they still play a significant role in passenger railroading, especially on medium- and long-distance trains. Today, a number of tourist-oriented railroads offer dinner excursions to capitalize on

3174-451: The lowest points are along the lake shore at 578 ft (176.2 m), while the highest point, at 672 ft (205 m), is the morainal ridge of Blue Island in the city's far south side. Lake Shore Drive runs adjacent to a large portion of Chicago's waterfront. Some of the parks along the waterfront include Lincoln Park , Grant Park , Burnham Park , and Jackson Park . There are 24 public beaches across 26 miles (42 km) of

3243-522: The meals on board. The level of meal service on trains in the 1920s and 1930s rivaled that of high-end restaurants and clubs. They were first introduced in England on 1 November 1879 by the Great Northern Railway Company on services between Leeds and London. A Pullman car was attached to the train for the purpose. As of 2018, Great Western Railway is the only UK train company to provide

3312-610: The mid-1880s, dedicated dining cars were a normal part of long-distance trains from Chicago to points west, save those of the Santa Fe Railway , which relied on America's first interstate network of restaurants to feed passengers en route. The " Harvey Houses ", located strategically along the line, served top-quality meals to railroad patrons during water stops and other planned layovers and were favored over in-transit facilities for all trains operating west of Kansas City . As competition among railroads intensified, dining car service

3381-413: The most common dining car configurations, one end of the car contains a galley (with an aisle next to it so that passengers can pass through the car to the rest of the train), and the other end has table or booth seating on either side of a center aisle. Trains with high demand for dining car services sometimes feature "double-unit dining cars" consisting of two adjacent cars functioning to some extent as

3450-498: The present location of Jackson Park . The Exposition drew 27.5 million visitors, and is considered the most influential world's fair in history. The University of Chicago , formerly at another location, moved to the same South Side location in 1892. The term "midway" for a fair or carnival referred originally to the Midway Plaisance , a strip of park land that still runs through the University of Chicago campus and connects

3519-593: The problem of sewage contamination was largely resolved when the city completed a major engineering feat. It reversed the flow of the Chicago River so that the water flowed away from Lake Michigan rather than into it. This project began with the construction and improvement of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, and was completed with the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal that connects to the Illinois River , which flows into

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3588-430: The property. Dining car A dining car (American English) or a restaurant car (English), also a diner , is a railroad passenger car that serves meals in the manner of a full-service, sit-down restaurant . These cars provide the highest level of service of any railroad food service car, typically employing multiple servers and kitchen staff members. Consequently, they are the most expensive to operate. It

3657-641: The public's fascination with the dining car experience. The U76/U70 tram line between the German cities of Düsseldorf and Krefeld offers a Bistrowagen ("dining car" in German), where passengers can order drinks and snacks. That practice comes from the early 20th century, when interurban trams conveyed a dining car. Despite the introduction of modern tram units, four trams still have a Bistrowagen and operate every weekday. [REDACTED] Trains portal [REDACTED] Food portal Chicago Chicago

3726-584: The runways. After successfully running for re-election five times, and becoming Chicago's longest-serving mayor, Richard M. Daley declined to run for a seventh term. In 1992, a construction accident near the Kinzie Street Bridge produced a breach connecting the Chicago River to a tunnel below, which was part of an abandoned freight tunnel system extending throughout the downtown Loop district. The tunnels filled with 250 million US gallons (1,000,000 m ) of water, affecting buildings throughout

3795-596: The said place called "Chicagou" which, according to what we were able to learn of it, has taken this name because of the quantity of garlic which grows in the forests in this region. The city has had several nicknames throughout its history, such as the Windy City , Chi-Town, Second City, and City of the Big Shoulders. In the mid-18th century, the area was inhabited by the Potawatomi , an indigenous tribe who had succeeded

3864-486: The shore of Lake Michigan , Chicago was incorporated as a city in 1837 near a portage between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River watershed . It grew rapidly in the mid-19th century. In 1871, the Great Chicago Fire destroyed several square miles and left more than 100,000 homeless, but Chicago's population continued to grow. Chicago made noted contributions to urban planning and architecture , such as

3933-570: The steel industry in Chicago, but the steel crisis of the 1970s and 1980s reduced this number to just 28,000 in 2015. In 1966, Martin Luther King Jr. and Albert Raby led the Chicago Freedom Movement , which culminated in agreements between Mayor Richard J. Daley and the movement leaders. Two years later, the city hosted the tumultuous 1968 Democratic National Convention , which featured physical confrontations both inside and outside

4002-551: The unemployed. In the spring of 1937 Republic Steel Works witnessed the Memorial Day massacre of 1937 in the neighborhood of East Side. In 1933, Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak was fatally wounded in Miami, Florida , during a failed assassination attempt on President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt . In 1933 and 1934, the city celebrated its centennial by hosting the Century of Progress International Exposition World's Fair . The theme of

4071-625: The visual arts, literature , film, theater , comedy (especially improvisational comedy ), food , dance, and music (particularly jazz , blues , soul , hip-hop , gospel , and electronic dance music , including house music ). Chicago is home to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Lyric Opera of Chicago , while the Art Institute of Chicago provides an influential visual arts museum and art school . The Chicago area also hosts

4140-644: The waterfront. Landfill extends into portions of the lake providing space for Navy Pier , Northerly Island , the Museum Campus , and large portions of the McCormick Place Convention Center. Most of the city's high-rise commercial and residential buildings are close to the waterfront. An informal name for the entire Chicago metropolitan area is "Chicagoland", which generally means the city and all its suburbs, though different organizations have slightly different definitions. Major sections of

4209-525: The world's first skyscraper in 1885, using steel-skeleton construction. The city grew significantly in size and population by incorporating many neighboring townships between 1851 and 1920, with the largest annexation happening in 1889, with five townships joining the city, including the Hyde Park Township , which now comprises most of the South Side of Chicago and the far southeast of Chicago, and

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4278-431: Was John H. Rauch, M.D. Rauch established a plan for Chicago's park system in 1866. He created Lincoln Park by closing a cemetery filled with shallow graves, and in 1867, in response to an outbreak of cholera he helped establish a new Chicago Board of Health. Ten years later, he became the secretary and then the president of the first Illinois State Board of Health, which carried out most of its activities in Chicago. In

4347-467: Was called the Society for Human Rights . It produced the first American publication for homosexuals, Friendship and Freedom . Police and political pressure caused the organization to disband. The Great Depression brought unprecedented suffering to Chicago, in no small part due to the city's heavy reliance on heavy industry. Notably, industrial areas on the south side and neighborhoods lining both branches of

4416-462: Was founded in 1837, most of the early building was around the mouth of the Chicago River, as can be seen on a map of the city's original 58 blocks. The overall grade of the city's central, built-up areas is relatively consistent with the natural flatness of its overall natural geography, generally exhibiting only slight differentiation otherwise. The average land elevation is 579 ft (176.5 m) above sea level . While measurements vary somewhat,

4485-458: Was held in a purpose-built auditorium called the Wigwam . He defeated Douglas in the general election, and this set the stage for the American Civil War . To accommodate rapid population growth and demand for better sanitation, the city improved its infrastructure. In February 1856, Chicago's Common Council approved Chesbrough 's plan to build the United States' first comprehensive sewerage system. The project raised much of central Chicago to

4554-414: Was incorporated on Saturday, March 4, 1837, and for several decades was the world's fastest-growing city. As the site of the Chicago Portage , the city became an important transportation hub between the eastern and western United States. Chicago's first railway, Galena and Chicago Union Railroad , and the Illinois and Michigan Canal opened in 1848. The canal allowed steamboats and sailing ships on

4623-402: Was repealed. The 1920s saw gangsters , including Al Capone , Dion O'Banion , Bugs Moran and Tony Accardo battle law enforcement and each other on the streets of Chicago during the Prohibition era . Chicago was the location of the infamous St. Valentine's Day Massacre in 1929, when Al Capone sent men to gun down members of a rival gang, North Side, led by Bugs Moran. From 1920 to 1921,

4692-411: Was resolved by 1933, and at the same time, federal relief funding began to flow into Chicago. Chicago was also a hotbed of labor activism, with Unemployed Councils contributing heavily in the early depression to create solidarity for the poor and demand relief; these organizations were created by socialist and communist groups. By 1935 the Workers Alliance of America begun organizing the poor, workers,

4761-434: Was taken to new levels. When the Santa Fe unveiled its new Pleasure Dome lounge cars in 1951, the railroad introduced the travelling public to the Turquoise Room , promoted as "The only private dining room in the world on rails." The room accommodated 12 guests, and could be reserved anytime for private dinner or cocktail parties, or other special functions. The room was often used by celebrities and dignitaries traveling on

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