The Nation's Freight Handler
Carl Sandburg famously described Chicago as, among other things, "Hog Butcher for the World, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and the Nation’s Freight Handler; Stormy, husky, brawling, City of the Big Shoulders..." While the hog-butchering, wheat-stacking and most of the tool-making have all faded away, Chicago is still stormy, husky and brawling (though in some ways, the edges have been sanded off) and is certainly still "Player with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler".
That latter characteristic is abundantly clear in the roughly triangular area between the elevation once hosting the B&OCT passenger route to Grand Central Station, (not to be confused with the similarly-named edifice in New York City- despite the common mislabeling, it's properly a Terminal) BNSF's "Racetrack", and the corridor of CSX and NS trackage parallel to Western Avenue. Contained within these boundaries are many massive warehouses, (rail-served in the days before the containerization revolution and now mostly converted into other industrial and commercial uses) BNSF's loose-car Western Avenue Yard, and Union Pacific's Global I intermodal terminal, formerly C&NW's huge Wood Street Yard. Into the latter facility, UP SD40N 1985 creeps with a transfer of empty well and spine cars- the foregroundmost car is in its train, showing how the yard's connection from CSX's B&OCT curves around from north to east. Through all the containerized tangle, one of a constant parade of tractor-trailers moves a container across town- a small but important piece of Chicago's role as the "Nation's Freight Handler".
The Nation's Freight Handler
Carl Sandburg famously described Chicago as, among other things, "Hog Butcher for the World, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and the Nation’s Freight Handler; Stormy, husky, brawling, City of the Big Shoulders..." While the hog-butchering, wheat-stacking and most of the tool-making have all faded away, Chicago is still stormy, husky and brawling (though in some ways, the edges have been sanded off) and is certainly still "Player with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler".
That latter characteristic is abundantly clear in the roughly triangular area between the elevation once hosting the B&OCT passenger route to Grand Central Station, (not to be confused with the similarly-named edifice in New York City- despite the common mislabeling, it's properly a Terminal) BNSF's "Racetrack", and the corridor of CSX and NS trackage parallel to Western Avenue. Contained within these boundaries are many massive warehouses, (rail-served in the days before the containerization revolution and now mostly converted into other industrial and commercial uses) BNSF's loose-car Western Avenue Yard, and Union Pacific's Global I intermodal terminal, formerly C&NW's huge Wood Street Yard. Into the latter facility, UP SD40N 1985 creeps with a transfer of empty well and spine cars- the foregroundmost car is in its train, showing how the yard's connection from CSX's B&OCT curves around from north to east. Through all the containerized tangle, one of a constant parade of tractor-trailers moves a container across town- a small but important piece of Chicago's role as the "Nation's Freight Handler".