windycityroadwarrior.com Blog

Since my last post in September, I have been trying to figure out how I screwed up my blog page. All of my categories, my archive, and related pages have disappeared from the layout to the right. All of this stuff still exists on my web site and can be accessed just by going to my upcoming events page:

http://windycityroadwarrior.com/blog/upcoming-events 

So, as I work on the fix for this, I will resume putting up new posts. I will include the above link in order to allow people to look back of previous posts in the meantime.

Click here to go to the upcoming events and blog previous posts (archive)

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I am pleased to announce the rollout of a new PowerPoint presentation that I will be bringing to Libraries, museums, and other organizations in the near future. The name of the presentation is The Roads that Lead to Lincoln: Honest Abe on the Historic Highways of Illinois.

2009 is the 200th anniversary of Lincoln’s birth.  Since so many of the places visited by Mr. Lincoln were within the state of Illinois, I decided to take a look at how Lincoln’s legend has become a cultural icon, as well as a historical subject that can be explored with relatively short trips from the Chicago area.

The presentation begins with a whimsical look at some of the ways Lincoln’s fame has been used in our commercial culture. This is followed by a look at Lincoln’s life in Illinois, from his arrival here in 1830 to his departure as President-elect in 1861. He never returned to Illinois until his funeral train carried his remains into the state at Chicago, then made the somber journey southwest to Springfield.

The final section of the presentation takes us on a virtual tour of Lincoln historic sites along the highways of Illinois: southwest from Chicago on Route 66, around the Eighth Judicial Circuit where Lincoln practiced law, up the Great River Road, and across the state on the Lincoln Highway. We follow in Lincoln’s footsteps and appreciate the monuments that have been built in his memory.

So far, I have scheduled the Roads that Lead to Lincoln for one location in November 2008, and many more in 2009. To keep up with the schedule of locations and dates, please check back often on my Upcoming Events page.
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Nicolson Pavement

Originally uploaded by daveandcarol.geo

In my recent research on early Chicago roads, I came across references to “Nicolson Pavement.” A little internet search brought me to this page, where the University of Michigan has placed the full text of over 10,000 books on line. This is a great resource, named the Making of America (MOA) Book collection, that I intend to explore further. The book that this drawing is from is titled The Nicolson Pavement, published in 1859.

Samuel Nicolson of Boston came up with several methods for paving streets with wood blocks that were secured in place by a mixture of pebbles and pine tar. The book indicates that the first use of Nicolson pavement in Chicago was on Wells Street south of the Chicago River in 1856.

The gems one uncovers when digging through old newpapers and documents for research purposes are sometimes the very items that keep researchers like me going. And sometimes those little gems, although they are not the objects we were actually looking for, become the most interesting and intriguing, or at least the most amusing.

Case in point: An article from the Chicago Tribune of April 2, 1911, entitled “‘It’s Surely a Fine Thing to be Billed as the Equator of Chicago,’ Says Madison Street, ‘but Finer to be the Heart of the West Side’.” The article talks first about the renumbering of addresses in Chicago which made Madison the “zero” point for north and south street numbers. It contrasts the development occurring in 1911 with Madison street’s earlier history as a pioneer pathway that connected with many other trails first blazed by Native Americans. In the 1850s, Madison and its intersecting routes were the first Chicago area thoroughfares to be improved with a wooden surface.

“Like all the other great highways of the early days, it became a plank road. Milwaukee avenue ws the northwestern plank road, Madison was the western plank road; Ogden avenue, which branched off it, was the southwestern plank road. The Madison street plank road was carried out westward fromt he city to the branch of the Desplaines river at Robinson’s. This work was done in 1850 and 1851. The road was soon built west to the DuPage county line, making seventeen miles in all. The Elgin and Genoa company then carried the plank work westward through DuPage county for twenty-eight miles, making a total plank highway to the west of fifty miles.

“The Southern Plank Road was carried out ten miles to Kile’s tavern. This is said to have been the best plank road leading out of the city. It was kept in better repair and was more popular than any of the others. It led to Riverside and LaGrange. Another famous old road that branched out of Madison street was what is now Colorado avenue. In 1834 and for may years afterward it was known as Barry Point road, because it led to the Widow Barry’s farm.

“Many interesting associations cling about the intersection of Madison street and Ogden avenue, where the plank roads joined. Here was situated the famous Bull’s Head Inn and the first Chicago cattle market. This cattle yard began business in a small way in 1848, just southeast of the intersection of the plank roads. There was nothing west of Ashland avenue, known as Reuben street at that time. Farmers from all over that wild section beyond Ann street [now Racine] used to drive their herds into this market; wild uncouth men from the wilderness, some of them coming in from as far as Oak Park.”

For those unfamiliar, Oak Park is about 5.5 miles west of the Madison and Ogden intersection, so by today’s standards it seems that those wild and uncouth Oak Parkers did not have far to go through the wilderness to offend the sensibilities of the refined Chicago city-dwellers. It would not suprise me if virginal city ladies had many a sleepless night from the nightmares of having Oak Parkers so close at hand–much like barbarians at the gates of Rome! Here’s hoping they were wearing their chastity belts at all times when perambulating around the west side plank roads!

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Those who live in Illinois who have been tracking our in-state political news over the last year may know that a battle has been going on for the last year over the funding crisis at the Chicago area transit agencies. Last week, the legislature and the governor finally passed and signed an agreement that increases the sales tax in Cook County by 0.25%, calls for an increase in the City of Chicago’s real estate transfer tax, and provides for additional state funding from existing general revenue. An overview of the new agreement is here at the Chicago Tribune’s Red Eye CTA Blog.

I am not bringing this up to comment on the details of the deal–many found fault with the fact that user fees (the cost of a bus or ‘L’ ride) are not going up at all, and quite a few people thought the governor’s last-minute call for free rides for seniors was unnecessary. I’ll leave those arguments for other people, or at least another time. Here is an opinion expressed in a comment on the Red Eye CTA Blog that caught my eye:

yeah, have a nice commute on the backs of us millions of taxpayers who do NOT take public transit! It’s like a curse on area drivers! And while everyone else pays more to get around the CTA has no fare increase! Let’s send these idiots a message and shop outside the Regional Taxation Authority boundaries!

I am a great believer in user fees to cover the lion’s share of most government services. As an occasional user of the CTA (I use the system for general transport, but not on a daily basis for commuting. My wife does use the ‘L’ to get to work) I would understand a reasonable increase in the cost of a ride. But the statement of this commenter that a general tax to fund transit is a “curse on area drivers” shows a lack of understanding of the history of transportation funding in the U.S. 

Using the assets of the government to build transportation modes goes back to the National Road under Jefferson, if not earlier for improvement of post roads at the general expense of the public. Ferry lines and canal building often involved a transfer of government-owned property to a private company with no remuneration, only a stipulation that the franchise owner would provide a public service at a reasonable fee. This arrangement was pushed further with the land grant railroads–Rail lines could lay tracks through the West (where the U.S. government originally claimed direct ownership of all land) and when the tracks opened the company would get deed to all government property within several miles of their lines.

But the single most heavily-subsidized transportation method in the nation’s history is the private motor vehicle. Since the passage of the first Federal Aid Road Act of 1916, general tax revenue has been diverted to the construction of roads. Since the Road Act only gave matching funds to road building projects in rural areas or in municipalities of 2500 or less, state highway departments naturally spent most of their resources on building outside of cities and large population centers. At the time there was no federal gas tax, so the 1-to-1 matching funds from Uncle Sam came from general revenue; most states funded their half from motor vehicle license fees and later from gas taxes. This amounted to a socialistic transfer of wealth from the cities–where most of the car owners lived–to the rural areas. In nearly all cases, the resultant improved roads were free from any direct user fee.

So, the city-dwelling car owner paid twice. His/her state license fees and gas tax funded the building of roads in the hinterland, and his city and county taxes were used to build and maintain the urban streets and alleys. As well, if that city dweller still used transit, then he/she paid for the privilege with every ride.

With the 1956 Highway Act, the imbalance became worse, as the feds paid $9.00 for every dollar of state funds. While a federal gas tax was part of the funding formula, still most of the cars in the country belonged to city dwellers, and still the vast majority of road building projects funded by the Act were non-urban.

So, I find it ironic that this commenter has an issue with a “diversion” of general revenue to cover transit budgets. Simply put, if we expect transit riders to fund their rides strictly through user fees, then all expressways should also be subject to tolls, and gas taxes and license fees should be allocated to road building and maintenance in the areas where they are generated. When the costs of this are actually seen, I think this commenter and other like-minded folks would go away quietly.