Connecting a nation, dividing a city: How railroads shaped the public spaces and social understanding of Chicago

Railroad development helped turn Chicago from a frontier town into a booming commercial and industrial entrepot soon after the first train rolled through the city in 1848. The railroads brought the business and people that turned the city into a major metropolis, but they also brought new hazards to urban life. Railroads were often given the right by local government to build tracks in public streets. People thus had to deal on a regular basis with railroad encroachment and the threat of injury or death. Trains also created traffic congestion and atomized neighborhoods. In other words, they had a significant effect on the built environment of the city. As such, railroads restricted the movement of people and circumscribed human agency. The Common Council realized the negative social consequences of railroad development in the city early on and enacted railroad safety legislation, but it was ineffective in enforcement, and it retained economic priorities over ones that focused on shaping Chicago into a more livable city. This was the case until the 1860s, at which time the city of Chicago received new city charters that gave local government a form that could much more effectively deal with the spatial consequences of railroads.