Trolley Tuesday 10/19/21 - Chicago's Green Hornet Streetcar Disaster

There are some disasters born of trial and error, there are some of many factors that culminate in one fatal act, and then there are some that are just freak accidents where a streetcar found itself in the wrong place at the wrong time. Long considered to be one of the deadliest midwestern streetcar disasters, and certainly the most violent, the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) "Green Hornet" streetcar collision of May 25, 1950 is best remembered for the absolute carnage that followed its fatal route and the trauma inflicted on Chicagoans, many of whom still pass through the intersection of 63rd and State Street today. On today's Trolley Tuesday, we look back on the "Green Hornet" disaster and the lessons it taught us.

Trolley Tuesday 7/21/20 - The Chicago Transit Authority

We think of Rapid Transit service as a fact of life, infallible and ever-existent since the dawn of time. Hell, people must have thought that when the original constituent companies of the CTA first formed back in the late 1890s. Unfortunately, history has a funny way of being oh-so-reductive. Instead, we'll close out our compendium of Chicago transit with a small history on the beginnings and current operations of the Chicago Transit Authority. We'll keep the intro short this time around, because we have a lot to get through.