What is today the Orange Line was part of the original Boston Elevated Railway subway and elevated network. Today the only section remaining is the Washington St Tunnel from Haymarket to Chinatown. Originally there were two lines through downtown: the Main Line and the Atlantic Ave El. The Main Line served elevated branches from Charlestown and along Washington St to Dudley Sq. in the South End. The Atlantic Ave El ran from Castle Sq. in the South End to North Station along Atlantic Ave to serve the maritime industries along the waterfront.
As the city grew so did the elevated lines, being extended to Forest Hills and Everett (a further extension to Malden was halted until the 1970s). As the maritime industry faded and ridership dropped the Atlantic Ave El was demolished and sold for scrap during World War II.
While the El served the city well it was not popular as it was loud, dark, and dirty. Plans were laid as early as 1945 to remove the El and rebuild as a subway.
In the 1970s the city canceled ambitious plans to run highways through and around the city and monies were transferred to subway construction. The northern section was rebuilt first, removing the elevated tracks through Charlestown and moving them west along a new subway to Malden in 1975.
The southern section was rebuilt along the route for the canceled I-95 expressway through Jamaica Plain to Forest Hills in 1987. While the new Orange Line was modern and fast the new route bypassed the existing community of Roxbury which relied heavily on mass transit. Service along the old route was replaced by the Silver Line bus in 2002.
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The Lake Street Elevated was Chicago’s second elevated line opening in 1893. In 1993 the CTA reorganized routes and color coded the new Lake St-South Side Lines as the Green Line.
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In 1895 the Metropolitan West Side Elevated Railroad began with service from Canal St to Logan Sq. Soon branches were added to Garfield Park, Humboldt Park, and Douglas Park. The Met, as it was known, has seen the most dramatic changes of all the Chicago “L” lines: the Humboldt Park and Logan Sq branches were removed when service was rerouted through the new Milwaukee-Dearborn Subway in 1951 and subsequently extended along the Kennedy Expressway to Jefferson Park in 1970 and then to O’Hare Airport in 1984. The Garfield Park branch was completely rebuilt along the median of Interstate 290 in 1958. In 2008 the Douglas Branch was rerouted along the Paulina Connector (a left over section of track from the old Logan Sq branch) to connect to the Loop and rebranded as the Pink Line.
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The Northwestern Elevated opened in 1907 and ran from a terminal on North Water St before it connected to Loop. The Main Line ran north to Evanston and a branch was built to Kimball. When the Northwestern was consolidated into the Chicago Rapid Transit Commission a second branch to Skokie was connected which once allowed interurban trains to run from the Loop to Milwaukee. The Northwestern division was split into the Brown, Purple, Yellow, and Red Lines.
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The South Side elevated opened in 1892 to serve the Columbian Exposition in 1893 and led to a building boom on the south side of Chicago. A number of branches were added to the line, to Englewood, Normal Park, Kenwood, and the Stock Yards. Today only the Englewood and Jackson Park branches remain while a number of stations have been closed due to low ridership.
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