THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



17 



to permit the passage of vessels into and 

 out of the river. 



After the river is crossed, the Avenue 

 does not recover its equanimity for sev- 

 eral blocks. It meanders along through 

 Carroll Avenue, then through Pine Street 

 to Lincoln Parkway, which in turn be- 

 comes the Lake Shore Drive. 



Under the new improvement plan the 

 jog is cut out by the razing of scores of 

 buildings ; a new double-decked bridge 

 will be built, and there will be a separa- 

 tion of team and truck traffic from light 

 vehicular traffic, the latter using the 

 upper level and the former the lower. 



The need for a double-decked bridge at 

 this point was shown in a recent investi- 

 gation. London Bridge heretofore was 

 supposed to hold the world's record for 

 density of traffic, with 7,578 vehicles 

 crossing it in twelve hours. But a count 

 at the Rush Street bridge showed that it 

 carried a thousand more vehicles in 

 eleven hours than London Bridge carried 

 in twelve. 



The waste of money occasioned by 

 inadequate traffic facilities in the past 

 reaches astonishing proportions. When 

 it is remembered that on the eight cross- 

 ings of Michigan Avenue between Wash- 

 ington and Indiana streets fifty thou- 

 sand vehicles were counted in eleven 

 hours, as compared with thirty-five thou- 

 sand in twelve hours at eight of the 

 busiest crossings in London, the cause 

 of delays will appear. 



And when one gets into a taxi that 

 registers the time lost by traffic delays 

 and bridge waits, as well as the distance 

 covered, he receives a very pressing ap- 

 preciation of what the sum of these de- 

 lays must mean in dollars and cents. In 

 a single year, in terms of one team or 

 motor car, the delays amount, at these 

 crossings, to the remarkable total of more 

 than a hundred thousand days. Think of 

 a hundred thousand days of waiting with 

 the taximeter running all the time ! 



The new part of the Avenue will be 

 double-decked from building line to build- 

 ing line. The approaches to the two-level 

 section will be by very gradual slopes, 

 and one will hardly realize that he is 

 passing from the city ^rade to an upper 

 level. The public entrances to all build- 



ings will be from the upper level, the 

 lower being reserved for freight han- 

 dling, etc. 



The third important project in the se- 

 ries of unit undertakings of the Chicago 

 Plan is that of doing away with the un- 

 sightly produce market in South Water 

 Street. 



The Federal Government has ordered 

 all bridges spanning this part of the Chi- 

 cago River to be raised, and as Water 

 Street is parallel thereto, it would become 

 nothing more than a series of ramps un- 

 less treated in some unusual way. So it 

 is proposed to acquire all property be- 

 tween Water Street and the river, and to 

 utilize it for making a very wide thor- 

 oughfare on the bank of the river, with 

 two levels, in keeping with the new levels 

 on Michigan Avenue. This improvement 

 will keep at least fifteen thousand vehicle 

 trips a day out of the sadly overworked 

 Loop District. 



CHICAGO, THE INLAND "SEASIDE) RESORT" 

 OF THE FUTURE 



To be a manufacturing and commer- 

 cial metropolis and at the same time an 

 inland Atlantic City is a privilege vouch- 

 safed very few cities in the world. Yet 

 Chicago is destined to have a water front 

 that might make many a seaside resort 

 envious. 



To secure the full benefits of her situ- 

 ation, the city is undertaking to connect 

 her three great lakeside parks. Already 

 Lincoln Park has edged a narrow way 

 southward along the beach until there is 

 a wonderful curving stretch of green 

 reaching to Grand Avenue and making a 

 four-mile parkway unbroken and un- 

 marred. 



From Grand Avenue southward this 

 stretch of green will be pushed onward, 

 crossing to an island outside the inner 

 harbor, and thence back to the mainland 

 and Grant Park. From this park to 

 Jackson it is proposed to reclaim nearly 

 thirteen hundred acres from the lake, on 

 a stretch of about five and a half miles. 



The reclaimed area will consist of an 

 outer park of 850 acres and an inner one 

 of 432 acres, separated by a lagoon 600 

 feet wide. Based on the lowest prices 

 paid for land in the same section by the 



