The State Street subway is an underground section of the

Chicago "L" The Chicago "L" (short for "elevated railway, elevated") is the rapid transit system serving the city of Chicago and some of its surrounding suburbs in the U.S. state of Illinois. Operated by the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), it is the four ...

system, carrying the Red Line through the

Chicago Loop The Loop is Chicago's central business district and one of the city's 77 municipally recognized Community areas in Chicago, community areas. Located at the center of downtown Chicago on the shores of Lake Michigan, it is the second-largest busi ...

. The subway is long, running underneath Clybourn Avenue, Division Street, and State Street. Red Line trains run through the State Street subway

24/7 In commerce and industry, 24/7 or 24-7 service (usually pronounced "twenty-four seven") is service that is available at any time and usually, every day. An alternate orthography for the numerical part includes 24×7 (usually pronounced "twenty- ...

, with trains arriving every 4 to 15 minutes. , the subway's 9 stations serve 52,664 boardings per average weekday. The subway's architecture is mostly in the

Streamline Moderne Streamline Moderne is an international style of Art Deco architecture and design that emerged in the 1930s. Inspired by Aerodynamics, aerodynamic design, it emphasized curving forms, long horizontal lines, and sometimes nautical elements. In indu ...

style, and is similar to that of Chicago's second subway tunnel, the Milwaukee–Dearborn subway. Three of the subway's stations are located along a continuous platform, which is the longest subway platform in the world. The continuous platform connects Lake, Monroe, and Jackson stations, and is approximately long. The State Street subway was constructed as part of the

New Deal The New Deal was a series of wide-reaching economic, social, and political reforms enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1938, in response to the Great Depression in the United States, Great Depressi ...

, and opened in 1943. It originally connected to the

North Side main line The North Side Main Line is a branch of the Chicago "L" system that is used by Red, Purple, and Brown Line trains. As of 2012, it is the network's busiest rail branch, serving an average of 123,229 passengers each weekday. The branch is long wi ...

at its north end and the

South Side Elevated The South Side Elevated is a branch of the Chicago "L" system in Chicago, Illinois that is served by the Green Line. It has on average 12,509 passengers, counting branch divisions, boarding each weekday as of February 2013, according to the Chica ...

at its south end. Since 1990, it has also connected to the Dan Ryan branch at the south end. The current service pattern began in 1993, with Red Line trains running from the North Side main line through the subway to the Dan Ryan branch.

History

The State Street subway project was funded by

programs established by

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...

during the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

. In 1937, the city of

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

successfully applied for a federal grant and loan from the

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; from 1935 to 1939, then known as the Work Projects Administration from 1939 to 1943) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to car ...

to fund the construction of two subway tunnels, the first of which would be built beneath State Street and the second beneath Milwaukee Avenue and Dearborn Street. On December 17, 1938, the city of Chicago began construction of the State Street subway at the intersection of State Street and Chicago Avenue. The tunnel was buried deep to enable the use of a

tunnel boring machine A tunnel boring machine (TBM), also known as a "mole" or a "worm", is a machine used to excavate tunnels. TBMs are an alternative to drilling and blasting methods and "hand mining", allowing more rapid excavation through hard rock, wet or dry so ...

throughout the construction of the subway. Only brief sections were built using the "cut-and-cover' method. Unlike the Milwaukee-Dearborn subway, no delays occurred in construction and the subway opened for revenue service on October 17, 1943. Willow portal 070826

In November 1985, work began to extend the State Street subway south from its original portal at 13th and State Street, where it connected to the South Side main Line, and the Englewood and Jackson Park branches, in order to connect the State Street subway to the Dan Ryan branch. The subway extension was completed by January 25, 1990, but did not immediately enter passenger service. On February 21, 1993, the CTA color-coded the lines and made the State Street subway and Dan Ryan Branch part of the present day Red Line. Trains were rerouted through the new subway extension to the Dan Ryan Branch which runs to 95th/Dan Ryan, while the South Side Elevated branch became part of the present day Green Line. On April 13, 1992, during the

Chicago flood The Chicago flood occurred on April 13, 1992, when repair work on a bridge spanning the Chicago River damaged the wall of an abandoned and disused utility tunnel beneath the river. The resulting breach flooded basements, facilities and the under ...

of water poured into Chicago's subways and the basements of nearby buildings. Service through the State Street subway was stopped temporarily, while water was pumped out of the tunnels. On November 18, 1997, the station at

Lake A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from ...

permanently opened as an independent station, offering transfers to the elevated State/Lake station. Lake was originally part of the

Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...

station. On October 23, 2006, the Washington station closed due to the

Block 37 108 North State Street, often referred to as Block 37, is a shopping mall and development situated in the Loop area of downtown Chicago, Illinois. This site is defined by the square block bordered by West Randolph Street, North State Stree ...

superstation project.

Station listing

Image gallery

File:20101129 04 CTA Red Line @ North & Clybourn.jpg, The renovated

head house A head house or headhouse may be an enclosed building attached to an open-sided shed, including the piers extending into a waterway, or the aboveground part of a subway station. Markets In the 18th and early 19th centuries, head houses were oft ...

of North/Clybourn on November 29, 2010 File:20101129 03 CTA Red Line @ North & Clybourn.jpg, Inside the North/Clybourn station on November 29, 2010 File:Lake RedLine CTA.jpg, The

street platform, May 2006 File:Chicago-state red line stop.jpg, An entrance to the Chicago/State station, July 2007 File:Ctasubway.jpg, The Washington/State station, 2005

References

Footnotes

External links

* {{Chicago L Railway lines in Chicago Chicago Transit Authority 1943 establishments in Illinois Chicago "L" infrastructure