A quiz question · medium
What engineering trick did 1850s Chicago use to raise its entire downtown?
Between 1855 and 1872, Chicago's downtown was lifted on hundreds of coordinated hand-cranked jackscrews — operated in synchronised teams — to allow new gravity sewers to be laid underneath. People kept eating and sleeping in the buildings during the lift. George Pullman supervised the largest single raise — the six-story Tremont House, an entire 320-room hotel.
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The Decade Chicago Lifted Itself Out of the Mud In the 1850s the central business district of Chicago was raised four to fourteen feet on jackscrews while continuing to operate. People kept eating at the hotels.
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