Finding Chicago: The newbirth of the iron vessel

Author: Ruoxi Liu

Program of Study: Master of Arts Program in the Social Sciences (MAPSS), Social Sciences Division

Why 606? Or, why the railway?

Honestly, the railway is one of my personal favorite images and signs of nostalgia. The heavy iron body and the rumbling tracks were attractive fun for me as a child. When I went back to my hometown in Inner Mongolia during vacations, my grandpa used to take me to the street behind our neighborhood to watch trains carrying goods or distant travelers rushing by. You can still see several public-owned neighborhoods of the railway department standing from the era of the Danwei system, which have been substituted by commercial house communities. There used to live all kinds of workers, from the railway system, the electricity system, civil aviation system, who are now grandpas and grannies whose children have already owned their modern apartments. Hence, when I grew up and understood it was the glory of both the past era and the undeveloped places relying on fuels and factories, it caught my heart again with the sense of vicissitude. 

 When it comes to Chicago, I see the past, not about the industry on the south side of Chicago but the railway crawling on the northwest. I want to pay a visit to those old railways and see how their slow life is going in this metropolis. What has caught my attention is a new life growing on the bones of a passed track—the 606 trails. The transformation alongside it is more massive than the trainline behind our apartments. Once it was surrounded by industries and manufactures, and now residential architectures are sitting around.

Walking on the north border of the West Town part, which is the last section of it, you can see people cycling, hiking, and jogging along a long well-designed route. It’s a nice place to spend time with family on weekends or just clear up the mind to walk alone, feeling the wind in dusk breezing on your face. 

 

The old roar of Chicago’s west side

Before the 606/Bloomingdale Trail existed, the elevated freight railway has been whistling for decades. It was built to solve the transportation problem caused by the fire in 1871. The Bloomingdale functioned as a connection between the north side of Chicago and the railroad’s yards at Galewood and Bensenville, connecting Chicago to the rest of the country. （Polk,1942）(Banich, 2012)In 1910, a project to elevate the city’s rail lines was launched to raise the safety of pedestrians. Loads of factories relied on the Bloomingdale line for transportation, including Northwestern Yeast Company, Samuel Olson Manufacturing Company, H.N. Lund Coal Company and so on. It spawned the formation of an industrial corridor surrounding it that would last for more than 100 years.(Banich, 2012)

Finally, it was shut down in 2001 due to the decline of the industry and rail freight. What makes it worth a sigh is that the flourishing of the West Town was brought by the railway itself and the factories alongside the railway. But that’s an old story from the 1840s. (Encyclopedia of Chicago, n.d., “West Town”)Nowadays, we can still see some traces of the old image, but it is difficult to tell its beauty and boisterousness in the past.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Things were changed in 2004, this old dead body got a second chance to live.

 

The new mirth of the West Town

The idea for The 606 was officially listed in the City’s Logan Square Open Space Plan in 2004, and the project took on a higher priority, under many efforts from organizations and residents volunteers such as the Friends of the Bloomingdale Trail set up in 2003.(Chicago Department of Transportation, 2011)Today, the former railroad tracks have been completely transformed into a beautifully landscaped parkway attracting millions of local people each year.(Choose Chicago, n.d.) “…the 606 offers serenity and a relaxed atmosphere that’s in perfect pitch with Chicago’s muscular, unpretentious Midwestern vibe. ” Blair Kamin, Pulitzer Prize Winning Architecture Critic said so on the occasion of the 606 opening.(R-Barc, n.d.)

 

 

People can walk, run, skate, scooter, bike, alongside the trail. It is not difficult to find posted pictures showing the energetic atmosphere of tourists.

And within the West Town, at the end of The 606 Trail, a green and lush park, Walsh Park, is waiting for people to take a rest. The railway before, carrying coal, constructing materials, and goods, nowadays ends in a peaceful little park with children playing zone. The hard symphony of the old era now sounds like a relaxed folk song.

 

The transformation process

The 606 Trail is the achievement shared by many patterners. Behind the amazing ongoing transformation over decades, efforts have been contributed by City departments, the Chicago Park District, the Trust for Public Land, Friends of the Bloomingdale Trail, Logan Square Neighborhood Association…(Chicago Department of Transportation, 2011)this list can be longer and even infinite when we count all the community residents inside.

In 2003, the “Friends of the Bloomingdale Trail” organization pushed the neighborhood cooperation and donation. After this project was decided, a multi-disciplinary team led by Ross Barney Architects stated the conversion design of the 606 Trail. They took advantage of the original elevated trails and created seamless integration of the trail and the neighborhood. Besides, connecting existing parks by the trail and expanding the accessible areas alongside the trail is another sparkling idea.(R-Barc, n.d.)

Additionally, the name of the trail has some romantic taste in a serious way. Officially named the Bloomingdale Trail, “The 606” gets its nickname from the common numbers in Chicago’s zip codes (the trail spans 60647 and 60622). The name both signifies its function as a linking the community and echoes the historical memory of numbering transportation arteries such as railways, highways, and similar thoroughfares. (Choose Chicago, n.d.)

 

The thrive of the remains

Just as I mentioned at the beginning, this is a story about nostalgia. What happened here seems to be a microcosm of Chicago’s century-long history. Chicago, as one of the most important railway centers in North America, once achieved remarkable industrial achievements. The sounds of steel rails and wheels still seem to echo. However, as the significance of railways in transportation gradually declined, the production of railway equipment began to decline in the 1960s. By the 1980s, several railway equipment suppliers such as Pullman, American Car & Foundry, and GATX had closed their manufacturing operations in the Chicago area.(Encyclopedia of Chicago, n.d., “Bloomingdale Line”)Present scene seems not so bad. After all, the abandoned railway has not been drowned by grasses but has been reborn and integrated into the lives of contemporary people. 

The remaining bridges and fragments of tracks look somewhat reluctant but also composed. Because an era has already quietly passed over Chicago. Manufacturing and wholesale industries are giving way, and the service industry has become a new source of growth. (Encyclopedia of Chicago, n.d., “Railroads”)People’s lifestyles have become lighter, and the city’s temperament gradually become more refined, just like the 606 Trail, a lively young people. But for those who often look back to the old times, these transitions are not all joyful. Some people and objects, like the railway, have fulfilled their historical missions and then quietly disappeared from this land. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Falling of the manufacturing and the wayout of gentrification

Everything unfolding along the Bloomingdale line breathes in sync with the urban destiny of Chicago. If we zoom out to a broader perspective, following the direction of this railway and tracing its long history, we glimpse a chapter of Chicago’s industrial epic.

From the mid-19th to the early 20th century, the arrival of railways spurred vigorous industrial growth in Chicago. The northwest area developed a diversified industrial ecosystem: brickyards and lumber mills flourished along the North Branch, while other rail corridors attracted garment companies, breweries, paint manufacturers, coal yards, and tanneries. The railroads transported not only goods but also capital, technology, and labor, laying a solid foundation for the first golden age of the industrial district.

From the early 1900s to the 1950s, Chicago reached its industrial zenith. In 1950, manufacturing employment in the city peaked at 560,000, accounting for a significant share of total urban employment.This era also marked the peak of rail transportation.（Graham, 2019） However, between the 1950s and the 1990s, the railroad industry experienced structural decline alongside Chicago’s manufacturing sector. Factories relocated or shut down in large numbers, and railways gradually fell into disuse as their economic rationale faded.（Encyclopedia of Chicago, n.d., “Railway”）(Banich, 2012)

Although the Northwest Side was not the primary victim of deindustrialization—unlike the areas more dependent on steel and slaughterhouses—the industrial decline that swept across Chicago due to trucking, technological competition, and suburbanization was a systemic shift that left no area untouched. Manufacturing employment in Chicago plummeted to 396,000 in 1970 and further dropped to 173,000 by 1990. Concurrently, Chicago’s development goals shifted fundamentally.（Graham, 2019）

The end of the industrial era, as noted in the narrative of Bloomingdale, was accompanied by the departure of people and capital. Looking back today, West Town—once a neighborhood of immigrants, railroad workers, and factory laborers—has become a typical example of gentrification. Its population is now predominantly young, affluent, highly educated, and White, with a notable Hispanic presence but a significantly reduced share of other immigrant groups.（JLL, 2020）（Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, n.d.）

As a result, the employment opportunities and living spaces of the blue-collar workers from diverse neighborhoods have shrunk, and they have been pushed into more affordable areas.

At first, this doesn’t seem like a serious problem to me，because my suspicion hints that the rising value of the properties and the improved living conditions will retain the people. But the population composition reminds me that from 1960 to 1990, the population of people of color has grown from 2.3% to 49.1%（Encyclopedia of Chicago. n.d.）, and from 1990 to 2023, it has fallen 12.4%. I am not aware that low wage people will be threatened by the property’s appreciation, ignoring the fact that 58.7% of the residents in West Town are renting their house instead of owing them.（Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, n.d.）

To protect the living space of low wage workers and the minorities who have achieved the City’s past and share the city with everyone else, Chicago must look back to its past, to a time when manufacturing generously created broad-based employment.

Therefore, I argue that building a new manufacturing and industrial landscape is the most proactive response. The City of Chicago has already launched initiatives in this vein, such as the Industrial Corridors Initiative（City of Chicago, 2019）, Brownfields Program（Graham, 2019）, and Industrial Growth Zones(World Business Chicago, n.d.). Although traditional manufacturing has transferred offshore, new industries such as metal processing serving high-tech productions and Biopharmaceuticals firms can be built to initiate new industry clusters. Although the employment rate may be high in some gentrified places, taking the West Town as an example, the top industries sectors with most people are typical middle-class , such as finance and health care(Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, n.d.).

Besides, Industrial heritage sites in the Northwest Side and elsewhere can be repurposed in two ways: some can be rehabilitated with new investments to rebuild industrial capacity, while others—like the Bloomingdale Trail—can be adaptively reused. For instance, former industrial sites can be transformed into museums of industrial history or art galleries, generating cultural and recreational value while creating service-sector jobs tied to these new uses. While the rent of houses in gentrified areas is difficult to reduce to former levels, the provided jobs may enable people to afford apartments in these relatively high-rent neighborhoods. It is impossible to bring a return wave of the left residents, but with new job opportunities and a more friendly environment for low wage people in the gentrified neighborhoods, these places can become shelters of  “refugees” of gentrification. For instance, people fleeing out of the high rent neighborhoods can hold their pace at a relatively low rent area which is gentrified already but with new suitable paid jobs emerging. In a word, if the gentrified places gained stronger capacity to contain people at the bottom of the social stratification, the process of gentrification can be slowed or even reversed.

 

Back to the title of this piece, the newbirth of the iron vessels are not only the Bloomingdale line. It also refers to both the industry tied closely to the train, and the workers who had been rushing inside those vessels for decades. Chicago, the iron giant, is shaking off the smoky prosperity in the past with some old memories falling away either. Just like the name of the website I found while searching for Bloomingdale’s history : Forgotten Chicago. But dear Chicago, It may not be so hurried to wave goodbye to the past right? How about you keep the old memories of the spray of metal and the whistling of the trains, leaving some space for the “antique” mode of economy and its remains, to make a new warm home for your children of a new generation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

Banich, T. (2012, May 4). The Bloomingdale Line. Forgotten Chicago. Retrieved August 28, 2025, from http://forgottenchicago.com/features/the-bloomingdale-line/

Bennett, L. (2019). How should we remember Vivian Maier? Gender, art, and the spectacle of strange genius. City & Community, *18*(4), 1153–1176. https://doi.org/10.1111/cico.12422

Chicago Department of Transportation. (2011). Bloomingdale Trail information. City of Chicago. https://www.chicago.gov/content/dam/city/depts/cdot/BloomingdaleTrail_INFO_2011.pdf

Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning. (n.d.). West Town. Retrieved August 28, 2025, from https://www.cmap.illinois.gov/wp-content/uploads/dlm_uploads/West-Town.pdf

Choose Chicago. (n.d.). Explore the 606. Retrieved August 28, 2025, from https://www.choosechicago.com/articles/parks-outdoors/explore-the-606/

City of Chicago. (2019, May). Kinzie Industrial Corridor modernization plan. Retrieved August 28, 2025, from https://www.chicago.gov/content/dam/city/depts/zlup/Planning_and_Policy/Publications/2019_05_16_KinzieIC_PlanDoc.pdf

Economic development. (n.d.). Encyclopedia of Chicago. Retrieved August 28, 2025, from http://encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/10764.html

Encyclopedia of Chicago. (n.d.). Bloomingdale Line. Retrieved August 28, 2025, from http://encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/2387.html

Encyclopedia of Chicago. (n.d.). Railroads. Retrieved August 28, 2025, from http://encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/409.html

Encyclopedia of Chicago. (n.d.). West Town. Chicago Historical Society. Retrieved August 28, 2025, from http://encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/1342.html

Friends of the Bloomingdale Trail. (n.d.). History. Retrieved August 28, 2025, from https://www.bloomingdaletrail.org/about/history/

Graham, S. D. (2019). Four decades of futility: Economic development policy and industrial decline in Chicago. Journal of Regional Analysis & Policy, *49*(1). https://jrap.scholasticahq.com/api/v1/articles/3844-four-decades-of-futility-economic-development-policy-and-industrial-decline-in-chicago.pdf

JLL. (2020). Chicago, IL metro employment dynamics: First quarter 2020. Retrieved August 28, 2025, from https://brandcast-cdn.global.ssl.fastly.net/5ec8e53e-99dc-4bb0-a9b8-dbd0c5fc3836/f892ff13-8c49-4eb3-a9b1-1ccfd36aebaa/6ed7c5d5d545726ed9acffcaf7b014d8/Chicago-IL-MSA-E-D—1Q20.pdf

Polk, W. R. (1942, November). Junction! The Milwaukee Magazine, 6.

R-Barc. (n.d.). The 606 framework plan. Retrieved August 28, 2025, from https://www.r-barc.com/work/the-606-framework-plan

World Business Chicago. (n.d.). Chicago industrial growth zones program. Retrieved August 28, 2025, from https://worldbusinesschicago.com/chicago-industrial-growth-zones-program/

I would really recommend you to read the Bloomingdale line’s history and other city spots history on the website of Forgotten Chicago!!  It contains very detailed and interest historical archives, showing the great passion and patient of the history fans!