1.
South Shore Line
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The name refers to both the physical line and the service operated over that route. The line was built in 1901–08 by predecessors of the Chicago South Shore and South Bend Railroad, passenger operation was assumed by the NICTD in 1989. The public Monday-Friday timetable shows 20 eastbound trains operating,18 of those operate out of Millennium Station. Of those, five terminate at Gary Metro Center, seven at South Bend Airport, two daily trains begin at Carroll Avenue and continue to South Bend Airport. The South Shore Line was constructed between 1901–08 by the Chicago and Indiana Air Line Railway, revenue service between Michigan City and South Bend began on July 1,1908. The CLS&SB leased the Kensington and Eastern Railroad on April 4,1909 and that year the full line to Kensington on the Illinois Central was completed, and beginning on June 2,1912, the electric cars were coupled to IC steam locomotives and run to downtown Chicago. The Chicago, Lake Shore and South Bend entered bankruptcy in 1925 and was bought by Samuel Insulls Chicago South Shore, the line continued to handle both freight and passengers. Under Insull, the CSS&SB embarked on a rehabilitation program. This included new ballast and ties, 100-pound rail in place of 70-pound rail, brush clearance, in 1946 the company acquired three Little Joe electric locomotives for freight service. These locomotives had originally constructed for the Soviet Union. These locomotives continued in service on the CSS&SB until 1983. 803, is preserved in operating condition at the Illinois Railway Museum, trains began running to Chicago on August 29. That same year, the line between East Chicago and Indiana Harbor was abandoned. The Chicago South Shore and South Bend turned a profit during World War II due to the nature of Northern Indiana. However, highway competition and suburban growth led to ridership declines, by the 1950s all interurban lines were seeing a decline in rail travel as automobile use increased. On September 16,1956, a street running section in East Chicago was removed with the building of a new alignment alongside the Indiana Toll Road, a truncation to west of downtown South Bend removed street trackage in that city from July 1,1970. The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway acquired the CSS&SB on January 3,1967, the ICC gave the state of Indiana a chance to reply and subsequently, the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District was formed in 1977 to subsidize service. When the railway went bankrupt, passenger service was assumed by NICTD on December 29,1989
2.
Millennium Station
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Located under Millennium Park, the terminal was established in the 1800s by the Illinois Central Railroad. It was rebuilt in the early 21st century and is now owned by the Northeast Illinois Regional Commuter Railroad Corporation, not counting commuters on the South Shore Line, over 18,000 people board Metra trains at Millennium Station each day. During peak periods, trains leave the terminal as frequently as twice a minute and it still received many trains thereafter, but was of secondary importance. Its importance increased dramatically in 1926 with the electrification of services on ICs main line and its Blue Island. Commuter trains from all three branches were now routed into the Randolph Street terminal, while intercity traffic continued to terminate at Central Station, originally, the station platforms were exposed and the ticketing facilities and the waiting room were located in the attached facility. The construction of Millennium Park gradually placed the station underground. Skidmore, Owings and Merrill was the architect for the station redesign, the pedway itself hosts a number of shops, eateries and services. Smurfit–Stone Building Chicago Cultural Center The Heritage at Millennium Park Randolph/Wabash L station Macys Lake/State L station Block 37 Washington/Dearborn L station Richard J
3.
Illinois
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Illinois is a state in the midwestern region of the United States, achieving statehood in 1818. It is the 6th most populous state and 25th largest state in terms of land area, the word Illinois comes from a French rendering of a native Algonquin word. For decades, OHare International Airport has been ranked as one of the worlds busiest airports, Illinois has long had a reputation as a bellwether both in social and cultural terms and politics. With the War of 1812 Illinois growth slowed as both Native Americans and Canadian forces often raided the American Frontier, mineral finds and timber stands also had spurred immigration—by the 1810s, the Eastern U. S. Railroads arose and matured in the 1840s, and soon carried immigrants to new homes in Illinois, as well as being a resource to ship their commodity crops out to markets. Railroads freed most of the land of Illinois and other states from the tyranny of water transport. By 1900, the growth of jobs in the northern cities and coal mining in the central and southern areas attracted a new group of immigrants. Illinois was an important manufacturing center during both world wars, the Great Migration from the South established a large community of African Americans in Chicago, who created the citys famous jazz and blues cultures. Three U. S. presidents have been elected while living in Illinois, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, additionally, Ronald Reagan, whose political career was based in California, was the only U. S. president born and raised in Illinois. Today, Illinois honors Lincoln with its official slogan, Land of Lincoln. The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum is located in the capital of Springfield. Illinois is the spelling for the early French Catholic missionaries and explorers name for the Illinois Native Americans. American scholars previously thought the name Illinois meant man or men in the Miami-Illinois language and this etymology is not supported by the Illinois language, as the word for man is ireniwa and plural men is ireniwaki. The name Illiniwek has also said to mean tribe of superior men. The name Illinois derives from the Miami-Illinois verb irenwe·wa he speaks the regular way and this was taken into the Ojibwe language, perhaps in the Ottawa dialect, and modified into ilinwe·. The French borrowed these forms, changing the ending to spell it as -ois. The current spelling form, Illinois, began to appear in the early 1670s, the Illinois name for themselves, as attested in all three of the French missionary-period dictionaries of Illinois, was Inoka, of unknown meaning and unrelated to the other terms. American Indians of successive cultures lived along the waterways of the Illinois area for thousands of years before the arrival of Europeans, the Koster Site has been excavated and demonstrates 7,000 years of continuous habitation
4.
Indiana
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Indiana /ɪndiˈænə/ is a U. S. state located in the midwestern and Great Lakes regions of North America. Indiana is the 38th largest by area and the 16th most populous of the 50 United States and its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th U. S. state on December 11,1816, before becoming a territory, varying cultures of indigenous peoples and historic Native Americans inhabited Indiana for thousands of years. Indiana has an economy with a gross state product of $298 billion in 2012. Indiana has several areas with populations greater than 100,000. The states name means Land of the Indians, or simply Indian Land and it also stems from Indianas territorial history. On May 7,1800, the United States Congress passed legislation to divide the Northwest Territory into two areas and named the section the Indiana Territory. In 1816, when Congress passed an Enabling Act to begin the process of establishing statehood for Indiana, a resident of Indiana is officially known as a Hoosier. The first inhabitants in what is now Indiana were the Paleo-Indians, divided into small groups, the Paleo-Indians were nomads who hunted large game such as mastodons. They created stone tools made out of chert by chipping, knapping and flaking, the Archaic period, which began between 5000 and 4000 BC, covered the next phase of indigenous culture. The people developed new tools as well as techniques to cook food, such new tools included different types of spear points and knives, with various forms of notches. They made ground-stone tools such as axes, woodworking tools. During the latter part of the period, they built mounds and middens. The Archaic period ended at about 1500 BC, although some Archaic people lived until 700 BC, afterward, the Woodland period took place in Indiana, where various new cultural attributes appeared. During this period, the people created ceramics and pottery, an early Woodland period group named the Adena people had elegant burial rituals, featuring log tombs beneath earth mounds. In the middle portion of the Woodland period, the Hopewell people began developing long-range trade of goods, nearing the end of the stage, the people developed highly productive cultivation and adaptation of agriculture, growing such crops as corn and squash. The Woodland period ended around 1000 AD, the Mississippian culture emerged, lasting from 1000 until the 15th century, shortly before the arrival of Europeans. During this stage, the people created large urban settlements designed according to their cosmology, with mounds and plazas defining ceremonial
5.
Chicago
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Chicago, officially the City of Chicago, is the third-most populous city in the United States. With over 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the state of Illinois, and it is the county seat of Cook County. In 2012, Chicago was listed as a global city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. Chicago has the third-largest gross metropolitan product in the United States—about $640 billion according to 2015 estimates, the city has one of the worlds largest and most diversified economies with no single industry employing more than 14% of the workforce. In 2016, Chicago hosted over 54 million domestic and international visitors, landmarks in the city include Millennium Park, Navy Pier, the Magnificent Mile, Art Institute of Chicago, Museum Campus, the Willis Tower, Museum of Science and Industry, and Lincoln Park Zoo. Chicagos culture includes the arts, novels, film, theater, especially improvisational comedy. Chicago also has sports teams in each of the major professional leagues. The city has many nicknames, the best-known being the Windy City, the name Chicago is derived from a French rendering of the Native American word shikaakwa, known to botanists as Allium tricoccum, from the Miami-Illinois language. The first known reference to the site of the current city of Chicago as Checagou was by Robert de LaSalle around 1679 in a memoir, henri Joutel, in his journal of 1688, noted that the wild garlic, called chicagoua, grew abundantly in the area. In the mid-18th century, the area was inhabited by a Native American tribe known as the Potawatomi, the first known non-indigenous permanent settler in Chicago was Jean Baptiste Point du Sable. Du Sable was of African and French descent and arrived in the 1780s and he is commonly known as the Founder of Chicago. In 1803, the United States Army built Fort Dearborn, which was destroyed in 1812 in the Battle of Fort Dearborn, the Ottawa, Ojibwe, and Potawatomi tribes had ceded additional land to the United States in the 1816 Treaty of St. Louis. The Potawatomi were forcibly removed from their land after the Treaty of Chicago in 1833, on August 12,1833, the Town of Chicago was organized with a population of about 200. Within seven years it grew to more than 4,000 people, on June 15,1835, the first public land sales began with Edmund Dick Taylor as U. S. The City of Chicago was incorporated on Saturday, March 4,1837, as the site of the Chicago Portage, the city became an important transportation hub between the eastern and western United States. Chicagos first railway, Galena and Chicago Union Railroad, and the Illinois, the canal allowed steamboats and sailing ships on the Great Lakes to connect to the Mississippi River. A flourishing economy brought residents from rural communities and immigrants from abroad, manufacturing and retail and finance sectors became dominant, influencing the American economy. The Chicago Board of Trade listed the first ever standardized exchange traded forward contracts and these issues also helped propel another Illinoisan, Abraham Lincoln, to the national stage
6.
Hammond, Indiana
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Hammond /ˈhæmənd/ is a city in Lake County, Indiana, United States. It is part of the Chicago metropolitan area, the population was 80,830 at the 2010 census, replacing Gary as the most populous city in Lake County. Hammond is located at 41°36′40″N 87°29′35″W, the citys elevation above sea level ranges from 577 feet to 610 feet. The city sits within the boundaries of the former Lake Chicago, Most of the city is on sandy soil with a layer of black topsoil that varies from non-existent to several feet thick. Much of the sand has been removed for purposes such as industrial use to make concrete. According to the 2010 census, Hammond has an area of 24.886 square miles. The population density was 3,548.3 inhabitants per square mile, there were 32,945 housing units at an average density of 1,446.2 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 59. 4% White,22. 5% African American,0. 5% Native American,1. 0% Asian,13. 3% from other races, hispanic or Latino of any race were 34. 1% of the population. 30. 3% of all households were made up of individuals and 9. 7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older, the average household size was 2.67 and the average family size was 3.36. The median age in the city was 33.3 years. 27. 6% of residents were under the age of 18,10. 1% were between the ages of 18 and 24,27. 3% were from 25 to 44,24. 2% were from 45 to 64, and 10. 7% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the city was 49. 0% male and 51. 0% female, as of the census of 2000, there were 83,048 people,32,026 households and 20,880 families residing in the city. The population density was 3,630.0 per square mile, there were 34,139 housing units at an average density of 1,492.2 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 72. 35% White,14. 57% African American,0. 41% Native American,0. 46% Asian,0. 08% Pacific Islander,9. 32% from other races, and 2. 81% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 21. 04% of the population,29. 7% of all households were made up of individuals and 10. 9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.58 and the family size was 3.23. In the city, the population was out with 27. 3% under the age of 18,9. 8% from 18 to 24,30. 1% from 25 to 44,19. 8% from 45 to 64. The median age was 34 years, for every 100 females there were 95.3 males
7.
Valparaiso, Indiana
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Valparaiso is a city and the county seat of Porter County, Indiana, United States. The population was 31,730 at the 2010 census, the site of present-day Valparaiso was included in the purchase of land from the Potawatomi people by the U. S. Government in October 1832. Chiquas town or Chipuaw was located a mile east of the current Courthouse along the Sauk Trail, chiquas town existed from at or before 1830 until after 1832. The location is just north of the crossing on State Route 2. Located on the ancient Naive American trail from Rock Island to Detroit, the city was once called the City of Churches due to the large number of churches located here at the end of the 19th Century. The city also has a history of being a transportation hub for the region. In 1858, the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railroad reached Valparaiso, by 1910, an interurban railway connected the city to Gary, Indiana. Today, while the city no longer has a train station, it is still very much a part of the Crossroads of America due to its proximity to I-65, I-80, I-90. Additionally, the Canadian National railroad still runs through the downtown area, until 1991, it was the terminal of Amtraks Calumet commuter service. The city is situated at the junctions of U. S. Route 30, State Road 2, and State Road 49. According to the 2010 census, Valparaiso has an area of 15.578 square miles. The city is situated on the Valparaiso Moraine, glaciation has left numerous features on the landscape here. Kettle lakes and knobs make up much of this area of Northwest Indiana. Many glacial erratics can be throughout the city. The moraine has left the city with mostly clay soil, as of the census of 2010, there were 31,730 people,12,610 households, and 7,117 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,043.1 inhabitants per square mile, there were 13,506 housing units at an average density of 869.7 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 89. 9% White,3. 3% African American,0. 3% Native American,2. 1% Asian,0. 1% Pacific Islander,2. 2% from other races, and 2. 1% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 7. 1% of the population,34. 5% of all households were made up of individuals and 11. 3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older
8.
Munster, Indiana
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Munster is a town located in North Township, Lake County, in Northwest Indiana, United States. The 2010 U. S. Census counted the population at 23,603. Munster is located at 41°56′45″N 87°51′25″W, at a point on an ancient shoreline of Lake Michigan which is today Ridge Road and this ridge runs east and west through the north part of town, hence the towns nickname Town on the Ridge. The towns boundaries contain three small lakes, one of which, located within Centennial Park, is marshy and undeveloped. Munster is bordered on the north by the Little Calumet River, a river surrounded by a thin strip of wooded area. According to the 2010 census, Munster has an area of 7.65 square miles. The Ibach House and Stallbohm Barn-Kaske House are listed in the National Register of Historic Places, the earliest known inhabitants of the area were the Potawatomi. Although a village did not exist in what was to become Munsters town boundaries, today, Munsters downtown area, the Town Hall, Police and Fire Department headquarters, the Centre for the Visual and Performing Arts, and the Munster Post Office are all situated on Ridge Road. In the late 17th and early 18th centuries, the area that is today Munster was part of land claimed by France as French territory, in the 1760s the British claimed the land where the Potawatomi lived as part of the British Empire. Twenty years later George Rogers Clark overran the British, claiming the land for the new, in 1828 the federal government relocated the Potawatomi Indians to the Oklahoma territory. As the numbers of Native Americans dwindled, pioneer settlers began to inhabit the area which would become Munster, the post office was named Munster, as it was located in Jacob Munsters general store. Before long more and more people moved to the Munster Area, Munster soon became a booming town that attracted many people. Munster saw difficult times through the years of the Great Depression. During the Cold War, Munster served as the site of the Nike-Zeus Missile defense base C-46, the site was closed in 1971, and is now under private ownership. In September 2008, Munsters northern portions suffered record flooding resulting from the impact of Hurricane Ike, a main break occurred in the levee located near the intersection of Calumet Avenue and River Drive in the northwest quadrant of the town. Munster has requested the Army Corps of Engineers to elevate the levee in low-lying areas, the levee improvements have been completed and the majority of homes destroyed have been rebuilt, in most cases, with larger, more amenity-filled homes. The 2010 Comprehensive Plan for Munsters next twenty years includes plans for a new town center with shopping and dining to be organized around a train station. As of 2011, the income for a household in the town was $75,349 while the mean income for a household in the town was $97,222
9.
Grand Calumet River
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The Grand Calumet River is a 13. 0-mile-long river that flows primarily into Lake Michigan. Originating in Miller Beach in Gary, it flows through the cities of Gary, East Chicago and Hammond, as well as Calumet City and Burnham on the Illinois side. The majority of the rivers flow drains into Lake Michigan via the Indiana Harbor and Ship Canal, a smaller part of the flow, at the rivers western end, enters the Calumet River and ultimately drains into the Illinois and ultimately the Mississippi River. Today, a portion of the rivers flow originates as municipal and industrial effluent, cooling and process water. Although discharges have been reduced, a number of contaminants continue to impair the area, the Grand Calumet is divided into an East and West branch, on the respective sides of the Indiana Harbor Canal. It leaves Gary by passing under Cline Avenue, and then defines the boundary between East Chicago and Hammond until reaching the Indiana Harbor Canal near Kennedy Avenue. The West Branch drains partly into the Indiana Harbor Canal and partly into the Calumet River, the divide between the part of the West Branch flowing into the Illinois River and the part flowing to Lake Michigan is in Hammond, Indiana, near the Illinois-Indiana state line. The West Branch joins the Little Calumet at Burnham, Illinois, in addition, the Indiana Harbor Canal itself is sometimes treated as a part of the Grand Calumet, which brings the rivers total length to 16.0 miles. The Grand Calumet flows through the Calumet Lacustrine Plain, a region of low, Groundwater contributions to the river, which account for less than 10% of total flow, come from the Calumet Aquifer, an unconfined water-table aquifer. The Calumet Aquifer is less than 10 feet below the surface in most areas, in this original configuration, the Grand Calumet included much of what is now the Little Calumet River, while the original Little Calumet was just a minor stream draining out into Lake Calumet. This original river is called by the older name Konomick or Kennomick to distinguishing it from the Grand Calumet of today. This created the basic definitions of the rivers as they exist today, the Grand Calumet at this point still flowed from west to east, emptying into the lake at Miller Beach. In 1848, the Calumet Feeder Canal was constructed to carry water from the Calumet system at Blue Island to the Illinois and Michigan Canal, which was suffering from low water levels. This reversed the flow of the Grand Calumet, so that it now flowed from east to west, by 1872, the rivers original mouth at Miller had been completely blocked by sandbars. Industrial development on the banks of the Grand Calumet began in the late 19th century, the accumulation of industrial sediment in the river had become problematic by 1885. The construction of the Gary Works in 1905 involved diverting and channelizing a considerable part of the East Branch to make way for the new steel mill. Previously, the Grand Calumet had flowed across a part of the present-day mill site. Continuing industrialization along the Grand Calumet led to increasing levels of pollution
10.
Highland, Lake County, Indiana
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Highland is a town in Lake County, Indiana, United States. The population was 23,727 at the 2010 census, the town was incorporated on April 4,1910. It is a part of the Chicago metropolitan area and North Township, in 1847, two pioneers from Ohio, Michael and Judith Johnston, became Highlands first settlers. The town slowly expanded until the early 1880s, when the development of Chicago & Atlantic railroad trackage through the town attracted agriculture, Dutch settlers began moving to Highland shortly thereafter from nearby Munster. 304 people resided in Highland when it was incorporated in 1910, in 1992, the Indiana Historical Bureau placed a state historical marker at 8941 Kleinman Road to recognize the immigration of Dutch in the Calumet Region. In 1927, President Calvin Coolidge visited and delivered the address for Wicker Memorial Park. Significant floods have affected Highland in 2008,2007, and especially in September 2006. On October 31,2008, Barack Obama, who four days later would be elected the 44th President of the United States and it was the largest crowd there since President Coolidge dedicated the park in 1927. Highland is located at 41°32′59″N 87°27′29″W, according to the 2010 census, Highland has a total area of 6.96 square miles, of which 6.94 square miles is land and 0.02 square miles is water. Highland has several neighborhoods and subdivisions, Highlands Downtown area features a number of buildings exhibiting Mid-Century Modern style architecture. As of the census of 2010, there were 23,727 people,9,924 households, the population density was 3,418.9 inhabitants per square mile. There were 10,335 housing units at a density of 1,489.2 per square mile. The racial makeup of the town was 88. 6% White,4. 2% African American,0. 2% Native American,1. 6% Asian,3. 4% from other races, hispanic or Latino of any race were 12. 8% of the population. 29. 4% of all households were made up of individuals and 11. 9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older, the average household size was 2.39 and the average family size was 2.97. The median age in the town was 41.5 years. 20. 9% of residents were under the age of 18,7. 8% were between the ages of 18 and 24, 26% were from 25 to 44,27. 9% were from 45 to 64, and 17. 3% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the town was 48. 0% male and 52. 0% female, as of the census of 2000, there were 23,546 people,9,636 households, and 6,677 families residing in the town. The population density was 3,428.3 people per square mile, there were 9,925 housing units at an average density of 1,445. 1/sq mi
11.
Calumet River
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The Calumet River /ˌkæljuːˈmɛt/ is a system of heavily industrialized rivers and canals in the region between the neighborhood of South Chicago in Chicago, Illinois, and the city of Gary, Indiana. The area is flat and the course and even the direction of the river system has changed repeatedly. The low gradient gives the only a very small current. Industry continued to spread along the reach of the river between 1890 and 1910, with similar results. These decades of unrestricted pollution have left the river sediments highly contaminated to this day, in September 2008, areas of Lake and Porter County, Indiana, were declared national disaster areas. The Little Calumet River breached its levee and flooded portions of the towns of Munster and Highland, the Calumet River, on the south side of Chicago, originally simply drained Lake Calumet to Lake Michigan. The Grand Calumet River, originating in Miller Beach, flows 16.0 miles through the cities of Gary, East Chicago and Hammond, as well as Calumet City and Burnham on the Illinois side. The majority of the rivers flow drains into Lake Michigan via the Indiana Harbor and Ship Canal, today, a large portion of the rivers flow originates as municipal and industrial effluent, cooling and process water and storm water overflows. Although discharges have been reduced, a number of contaminants continue to impair the area and this arm of the river is 41 miles long. The Little Calumet has 109 miles of river and tributaries and drains 213 square miles and it has a total length of 22 miles. It used to continue westward to Illinois as the Little Calumet River, until sometime in the late 1940s or early 1950s, the Little Calumet River was heavily polluted with sewage, and the only fish living in the river were carp. During heavy spring rains, the river would flood areas adjacent to the river. The Little Calumet River has been undergoing construction of a $200 million flood control, the project was expected to be complete in 2013. The project includes construction of 22 miles of levees and floodwalls, a structure at Hart Ditch. Additionally, seven miles of the channel is being relocated to allow better water flow. A flood warning system is also being implemented, when complete, the project will protect over 9,500 homes and businesses in the towns of Gary, Griffith, Hammond, and Munster in Indiana, and prevent nearly $11 million in flood damage annually. On September 15,2008, the remnants of Hurricane Ike released heavy rain flooded the banks of the Little Calumet River. Houses and strip malls in northern Munster and southern Hammond were evacuated, hundreds of homes were damaged due to flooding
12.
South Bend Airport station
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South Bend Airport is a commuter train station on, and the eastern terminus of, the South Shore Line. Servicing South Bend International Airport, the station is 3 miles northwest of the business district of South Bend. In November 1992, this replaced the South Shore Lines former terminus at the South Bend Amtrak Station. The station has an office and a waiting room. Because the station is incorporated into the South Bend International Airport building, riders can take advantage of its extensive lounging areas, shops. Until November 27,2009, most eastbound weekend South Shore Line trains terminated at this station, thus, if the westbound train got delayed, the eastbound train got delayed even more because it needed to wait for the westbound train to clear the track. Paul United Express Chicago OHare Airport Newark South Bend International Airport South Shore Line - Stations South Bend Regional Airport
