Published by: Commercial Club of Chicago Publishing date: 1909 Plan Summary: One of the first regional transportation plans prepared for Chicago was contained within the famous Plan of Chicago, prepared by Daniel Burnham and Edward Bennett and published by the Commercial Club of Chicago in 1909. The plan embodied the City Beautiful Movement, an urban planning philosophy, demonstrated by the fairgrounds of the 1893 Columbian Exposition, that cities should be clean, orderly, ornate, attractive places for all citizens. Usually embodied in Classical Revival architecture and European-inspired boulevards and open public spaces, the City Beautiful Movement espoused the belief that such an environment would improve urban living for all classes. The Plan of Chicago was comprehensive, covering everything from roads to parks to freight and aviation, although it was strictly a physical plan and did not deal with social issues directly. Naturally, mass transit was included in the plan as well. The Chicago Area Transportation Study's first regional Chicago transportation plan, published in 1962, described the transit component of the 1909 plan this way: Driven by great civic pride and concern, Burnham prepared a sweeping and extensive proposal for the ultimate development of the Chicago region. This remarkable document is a part of the background of all Chicagoans and is a classic of city planning. Burnham concentrated much of his attention on transportation facilities and on parks, reasoning that these were the prime ingredients for effective function and for aesthetic living. With respect to transit facilities, his main attention was directed to enlarging the central business area and increasing the transit routes both above and below ground. The large number of routes shown on Map 18 illustrate the optimism of those times. This probably is to be expected. The streetcars of 1890 and the elevated lines constructed from 1895-1900 all represented the eager participation of private capital in street and elevated railway companies. There was competition and high bidding for route franchises, and the steady growth in people and in traffic made these investments popular. An example of Burnham's optimism was his expectation of ultimately having a million workers employed in the Central Business District. This never came about. The 1956 survey showed about 280,000 persons working in the Loop area, and an additional 320,000 in the area bounded by North Avenue, Cermak Road and Ashland Avenue. Burnham did foresee and emphasize the rewards obtainable from fully grade separated facilities. His design for multilevel service showed the extensive improvements needed if a million workers were to be delivered into the Central Business District each day. The Plan of Chicago proposed a dense network of subway lines in the central area, with additional subway and elevated lines radiating out into the neighborhoods. It is unclear what routings would have served this network, however, and Burnham and Bennett likely did not give this much consideration either, preferring to leave such specifics to whatever company or municipal entity eventually built the lines.     This Chicago-L.org article is a stub. It will be expanded in the future as resources allow.

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