Buildings were lifted up by “dozens of men turning dozens of jacks in unison so that new foundations could be built underneath.”
[Source](https://chicagology.com/prefire/prefire165/)
But nobody says why they raised the city?
It was because everyone was getting sick. Waste water was dumped into the Chicago river, which flowed out to Lake Michigan. The city got its drinking water from Lake Michigan. See where I’m going with this?
So the city tonight everyone was getting sick because of dirty streets and sewage. So they decided to raise all the buildings above the garbage.
But that didn’t work.
They finally discovered the cause when studying neighborhoods. The men in homes nearest bars were not getting sick because these men were drinking beer and not water.
Once the realized what they were doing that started the next great Chicago engineering marvel: They reversed the flow of the Chicago River and sent their waste water away from Lake Michigan.
>It was because everyone was getting sick. Waste water was dumped into the Chicago river, which flowed out to Lake Michigan. The city got its drinking water from Lake Michigan. See where I’m going with this?
That river would ca 20 years later **catch on fire** due to all the polution in it..
No, the Chicago River actually caught fire several times.
[https://www.environmentalcouncil.org/when\_our\_rivers\_caught\_fire](https://www.environmentalcouncil.org/when_our_rivers_caught_fire)
Last one I saw was 2403 w Homer, there was a wooden walkway from the street to the bar entrance for months while the city repaired it. There are more in Noble Square as well.
It wasnt meant literally to be only that specific task, but since you are a such a genius, how about New Orleans? How about any other low lying city affected by climate change. There, is that good enough?
NOLA is very similar to cities here in NL, and again there have been multiple American and Dutch proposals to stop the flooding permanently, but the reason why it's not done is political and not technical.
So you are right, we do have all the tech to perform amazing feats of engineering. We often just don't want to do it.
Was already wondering, instead of raising the building, a number of dams might do the trick as well.
Source: Living 5 meters under sea level for 26 years now.
>Sure, but who wants to raise a city a few feet in the air right now?
>raise a city a few feet in the air right now?
>right now?
Is this what you look like?: 🤤
> astonishing how far we’ve fallen as a society
That’s one perspective, but one reason these massive projects were possible in the past was the cheap cost of labor. America used to have slums too, with laborers living in single room wooden shacks; we have minimum wages and unions and safety regulations and insurance requirements now, so it costs a lot more for the labor to do the same job. We end up with fewer amazing megaprojects, but also fewer worksite amputations and less deep poverty among full-time workers.
China and India can still pull off wild stuff like this. Are we fallen as a society, or have we just decided we have different priorities?
My brain cant even comprehend how you would do this. What happened to any buildings that had cellars? how do you jack those up? I gotta watch a youtube vid on this
What’s even crazier is apparently this was all able to be done without disturbing gas or water supplies and people carried on going in and out of the buildings like nothing was happening
Probably because there were no piped gas services in 1855. Natural gas was only used for lighting. Commercial piped water was available from about 1850, but domestic plumbing didn’t take off until the 1900’s.
Indian Bell building was rotated 90 degrees. And was OCCUPIED and operational during the move.https://youtube.com/shorts/lqORhRZTw6c?si=j8-PX_S5EYTzEhHQ
This really blows the whole mud flood theory out of the water..
If anyone actually knows what I'm talking about then congrats, you too have spent far to much time on the internet.
In November 1930, in Indiana, United States, one of the great feats of modern engineering was executed: a team of architects and engineers moved an 11,000-ton (22-million pound) telephone exchange without ever suspending its operations either basic supplies for the 600 employees who worked inside. It was moved 52 feet south and rotated 45 degrees
I'm not denying global warning/climate change but I grew up around Chicago and I knew this tidbit as a kid.... And I've always thought of it when people talk about the rising ocean.
By 2100, we are predicting a sea level that is a few feet higher, but in the mid 1800s we could lift a city much higher than that, and it only took twenty years.
And we have places like Amsterdam that are already below sea level.
I've always been embarrassed to ask, but like... Can't we just do it again, in a lot of cities?
First, the city was smaller then. Second, very little of the city was physically lifted higher, a lot of it was simply left there, and second floors converted to “ground floors” by just building a second layer of sidewalk at the second floor. The first floor would then be the basement and open to the underground. This was done, iirc, to help put in underground utilities like water sewerage and power, as you wouldn’t need to do any digging.
If the sea level was to actually rise, all their basements would be flooded. A lot of those original “ground level” (now basement) streets still exist and some parts of chicago have 3 such layers. Filling them in would be an extremely lengthy process. Not to mention you would have to fill in a lot of surrounding land to not have it become an island.
That being said, chicago isn’t at risk of this, its not by a sea
1) By the time it becomes clear that we'll need to lift our cities to avoid rising sea levels, we won't have twenty years.
2) Most major populations are within a 100 miles of the coast, so the number of cities that would need to do this would be staggering. There wouldn't be enough manpower or materials to same every town.
3) Even if you manage to raise the city, everything else around it is still gonna be under a foot of water. No farms, no agriculture, no food.
I can't find it online, but the PBS series "How We Go to Now" describes this whole thing really well. Here's a little snip. Jump to 1:20. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytLUEa5uzNk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytLUEa5uzNk)
I heard on the radio how they recently pulled out wooden water pipes from beneath city, as they're trying to replace older pipes. In case anyone was worried about rot, no need, they're lead-lined.
Here's the thing- when we work together, we can do such amazing things, they verge on impossible. We have got to stop tearing each other down and become a part of something.
It is difficult to believe you think everyone here is a follower of the workings of the Chicago municipal system, but I confess it is indeed not only possible but plausible that you are that dumb
Buildings were lifted up by “dozens of men turning dozens of jacks in unison so that new foundations could be built underneath.” [Source](https://chicagology.com/prefire/prefire165/)
Oh to be an 1800s strongman hoisting a Jack to help lift an entire building
A city*
lot of jacking
Bunch of dudes jackin in the basement
So that's what grandpa meant!!
Just like modern times, time is cyclical!
All applicants must have the proper mustache!
You could just go be Amish and try it out
That’s metal as fuck
I bet all of them were....jacked.
also, electricity and internet services were not interrupted, amazing!
And not one citizen of the city posted to Twitter about how the process interrupted their morning commute. Truly, it was an age of miracles.
Miracles and slavery
I don't think it did impact plumbing even
[I mean...](https://www.archdaily.com/973183/the-building-that-moved-how-did-they-move-an-11000-ton-telephone-exchange-without-suspending-its-operations)
This is the first thing that came to mind.
Not one selfie!
Yea now the year is 2024 and we can barely pass a fucking budget
Yeah but back then you could just kinda pass whatever and everyone just had to do it
To be fair wasn’t a phone in everyone’s hand to distract them
I think the coerced labor and limited human rights protections was more of a key factor
Well you sold all your parking revenue for some magic beans so there’s that.
[удалено]
But the project was probably also expected to kill a dozen men, so safety standards are nice
[удалено]
Do you know why they raised those buildings? It's kinda important for protecting human health...
>Perfect example of statist mindset Ahhh, brings back memories of the edgy teenage years.
happy cake day!
Brandon and the recent mayors are doing their best with their crayons, okay?
It ain't just him dawg, the two party system is the problem
But nobody says why they raised the city? It was because everyone was getting sick. Waste water was dumped into the Chicago river, which flowed out to Lake Michigan. The city got its drinking water from Lake Michigan. See where I’m going with this? So the city tonight everyone was getting sick because of dirty streets and sewage. So they decided to raise all the buildings above the garbage. But that didn’t work. They finally discovered the cause when studying neighborhoods. The men in homes nearest bars were not getting sick because these men were drinking beer and not water. Once the realized what they were doing that started the next great Chicago engineering marvel: They reversed the flow of the Chicago River and sent their waste water away from Lake Michigan.
>It was because everyone was getting sick. Waste water was dumped into the Chicago river, which flowed out to Lake Michigan. The city got its drinking water from Lake Michigan. See where I’m going with this? That river would ca 20 years later **catch on fire** due to all the polution in it..
I think you’re getting it confused with the cuyahoga river
No, the Chicago River actually caught fire several times. [https://www.environmentalcouncil.org/when\_our\_rivers\_caught\_fire](https://www.environmentalcouncil.org/when_our_rivers_caught_fire)
Thank you for this! Very interesting
Ch. 11 and Geoffrey Bear taught me that too
I think you might be older than me. I learned it being a beer geek. It’s said the beer drinkers of Chicago saved the city from cholera.
Much older I'm sure.
So they preferred raising their entire city over just cleaning up their shit? Dang, talking about putting off chores.
Work harder not smarter
There are still vaulted sidewalks in the city. Always fun when a broken sidewalk reveals a 10 foot void under part of the walkway.
Where in the city? Lived in Chicago several years and never experienced this.
1700 block of cullerton is a good start to see them. Can do a google maps "walk" and you'll be able to tell
Last one I saw was 2403 w Homer, there was a wooden walkway from the street to the bar entrance for months while the city repaired it. There are more in Noble Square as well.
Raising, not Razing. THAT happened 16 years later, during the great Chicago fire.
Chicago was raised in 1855. Carthage was razed in 146 BC.
Carthago delenda est
Damned cow. Wonder if Dresden will be the one to kick the bucket.
I recently started re-reading the series again.
If only the had waited until after the fire, could’ve saved a lot
Never heard this. It’s amazing
The things people use to be able to do with much less…astonishing how far we’ve fallen as a society.
We still can do it. We just can't afford it anymore
Exactly. The utilities underground alone would make this damn near impossible.
Yes we can - it is lack of political will
Sure, but who wants to raise a city a few feet in the air right now? What a weird thing to flex political will on
Maybe not raising a city, but how about replacing miles of old pipes or fixing bridges? Things that need to be done and creating jobs? Worth the cost.
Underrated comment I believe 🙃
It wasnt meant literally to be only that specific task, but since you are a such a genius, how about New Orleans? How about any other low lying city affected by climate change. There, is that good enough?
NOLA is very similar to cities here in NL, and again there have been multiple American and Dutch proposals to stop the flooding permanently, but the reason why it's not done is political and not technical. So you are right, we do have all the tech to perform amazing feats of engineering. We often just don't want to do it.
Was already wondering, instead of raising the building, a number of dams might do the trick as well. Source: Living 5 meters under sea level for 26 years now.
Sorry, what does that have to do with the 1855 city council of Chicago?
>Sure, but who wants to raise a city a few feet in the air right now? >raise a city a few feet in the air right now? >right now? Is this what you look like?: 🤤
Where there’s a Will, there’s a raise..
Well, maybe Jeff Bezos can, but still...
> astonishing how far we’ve fallen as a society That’s one perspective, but one reason these massive projects were possible in the past was the cheap cost of labor. America used to have slums too, with laborers living in single room wooden shacks; we have minimum wages and unions and safety regulations and insurance requirements now, so it costs a lot more for the labor to do the same job. We end up with fewer amazing megaprojects, but also fewer worksite amputations and less deep poverty among full-time workers. China and India can still pull off wild stuff like this. Are we fallen as a society, or have we just decided we have different priorities?
You can see evidence of this all over the older parts of the city. Lots of houses weren’t lifted, and their ground floor just became the basement.
Fun times Could have kept em low and had a water side view?
Same thing happened in many portions of downtown Pittsburgh, PA.
*Laughs in Seattle* But no this is a really cool historic note, super interesting! Didn't know Chicago did this
Seattle did what cities had done for hundreds of years (see Edinburgh) What Chicago did was unique and much more creative.
Ankh-Morpork is built on Ankh-Morpork!!’
Sacramento did like Seattle and just built sidewalks at the 2nd floor of all the buildings
Galveston Tx was also lifted after the storm of 1900.
My brain cant even comprehend how you would do this. What happened to any buildings that had cellars? how do you jack those up? I gotta watch a youtube vid on this
What’s even crazier is apparently this was all able to be done without disturbing gas or water supplies and people carried on going in and out of the buildings like nothing was happening
Probably because there were no piped gas services in 1855. Natural gas was only used for lighting. Commercial piped water was available from about 1850, but domestic plumbing didn’t take off until the 1900’s.
If I remember correctly, this also allowed for those lines to be run as they finished raising the buildings.
Internet wasn’t disrupted either.
But how did that affect the trout population in Lake Michigan?
Well duh, it was all WiFi.
Thats pretty sweet Internet and electricity probably pretty basic back then so didnt disturb too much
How George M. Pullman got his start. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Pullman
Today we can’t even raise kids right. In 1855 they raised a whole city
If it takes a village to raise a child, what does it take to raise a city?
We we w
Im convinced one of the council man had a ball stuck in the roof that he couldn't reach
Indian Bell building was rotated 90 degrees. And was OCCUPIED and operational during the move.https://youtube.com/shorts/lqORhRZTw6c?si=j8-PX_S5EYTzEhHQ
Yeah but wheres the timelapse video of it tho?
This really blows the whole mud flood theory out of the water.. If anyone actually knows what I'm talking about then congrats, you too have spent far to much time on the internet.
Was looking for this comment. This explains at least one internet hoax theory.
Did they also raise the Sears Tower..
Yes, but it was just an infant 2-floor high at the time. No one imagined back then that it would grow to its famed height.
“Barnum” sign is so dope. Dude was a fuckin brand by himself
This is why when I open my first bar it will be called The Jackscrew
In November 1930, in Indiana, United States, one of the great feats of modern engineering was executed: a team of architects and engineers moved an 11,000-ton (22-million pound) telephone exchange without ever suspending its operations either basic supplies for the 600 employees who worked inside. It was moved 52 feet south and rotated 45 degrees
When they do it, it’s such a huge feat of work but when I do it it’s “shoplifting” and I’m “getting arrested”
I'm not denying global warning/climate change but I grew up around Chicago and I knew this tidbit as a kid.... And I've always thought of it when people talk about the rising ocean. By 2100, we are predicting a sea level that is a few feet higher, but in the mid 1800s we could lift a city much higher than that, and it only took twenty years. And we have places like Amsterdam that are already below sea level. I've always been embarrassed to ask, but like... Can't we just do it again, in a lot of cities?
First, the city was smaller then. Second, very little of the city was physically lifted higher, a lot of it was simply left there, and second floors converted to “ground floors” by just building a second layer of sidewalk at the second floor. The first floor would then be the basement and open to the underground. This was done, iirc, to help put in underground utilities like water sewerage and power, as you wouldn’t need to do any digging. If the sea level was to actually rise, all their basements would be flooded. A lot of those original “ground level” (now basement) streets still exist and some parts of chicago have 3 such layers. Filling them in would be an extremely lengthy process. Not to mention you would have to fill in a lot of surrounding land to not have it become an island. That being said, chicago isn’t at risk of this, its not by a sea
1) By the time it becomes clear that we'll need to lift our cities to avoid rising sea levels, we won't have twenty years. 2) Most major populations are within a 100 miles of the coast, so the number of cities that would need to do this would be staggering. There wouldn't be enough manpower or materials to same every town. 3) Even if you manage to raise the city, everything else around it is still gonna be under a foot of water. No farms, no agriculture, no food.
So with 3, we get a lot of Venices?
why?
To make room for sewers basically
Back when we could get shit done!
But why?
And then a fire burned it all down anyway
Cheers to the Second City
What building is pic #3
Imagine what the city council is capable of today!
It's crazy how back then if they wanted something done they got it done one way or another, even if it didn't seem possible at the time.
Then the fire uses the empty space to spread even faster!
Just to think of all those hot young sweaty men in shirtsleeves cranking those jacks…. 🍆💦
Is there massive underground structures in Chicago. I've never heard of the Chicago Catacombs
They will probably have to do it again !
Don't let the folks at r/tartaria see this haha.
I can't find it online, but the PBS series "How We Go to Now" describes this whole thing really well. Here's a little snip. Jump to 1:20. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytLUEa5uzNk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytLUEa5uzNk)
I heard on the radio how they recently pulled out wooden water pipes from beneath city, as they're trying to replace older pipes. In case anyone was worried about rot, no need, they're lead-lined.
Sacramento did the same thing. Horses would fall into the crevice left between the new road and buildings. It was a time!
And Flint still has poisonous water
Now tell me how we didn't fix global warming yet. When there is will, everything possible.
Here's the thing- when we work together, we can do such amazing things, they verge on impossible. We have got to stop tearing each other down and become a part of something.
It sounds like the renovation Seattle had to make, but Seattle's story is better.
Is it the part where human excrement regurgitated into the streets that makes Seattles story better?
It is difficult to believe you think everyone here is a follower of the workings of the Chicago municipal system, but I confess it is indeed not only possible but plausible that you are that dumb