USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Building off of Chicago’s existing role as a transportation hub, it became a hub for the world’s two largest airlines: United and American. By the end of the decade more than 30 million passengers per year would fly through O’Hare. O’Hare was actually the single busiest airport on Earth for several decades.

Detailed explanation-2: -With its unparalleled access to transportation facilities, the Chicago region is one of the nation’s preeminent hubs for intermodal freight–the movement of containerized cargo via multiple transport methods such as rail, trucks, planes, and ships.

Detailed explanation-3: -Chicago is North America’s largest rail hub, and remains unsurpassed in the total number of passenger and freight trains that converge on any city on the continent. Chicago is a major hub for Amtrak, with 15 different lines terminating at the city’s Union Station.

Detailed explanation-4: -Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) The nation’s second largest public transportation system, the CTA operates Chicago’s eight ‘L’ train lines and 129 bus routes. Not all of the system’s train lines are elevated (which is where the term ‘L’ comes from).

Detailed explanation-5: -Chicago in 1820. Courtesy Abraham Lincoln Presi-dential Library. This was especially important during the early 1800s when traveling by boat was the fastest, easiest, and safest way to move west. After the Civil War, railroads made Chicago the Midwest’s biggest city and a transportation hub for the whole country.