America is obsessed with its own narrative. The founding fathers, the frontier, the rise of industry. But walk a little deeper into the story of nearly any major American city, and you’ll find layers that the history books barely scratched. Underground railroads. Literal underground cities. Communities erased without a trace – or worse, deliberately forgotten.
Honestly, I think this is the stuff that makes history genuinely fascinating. Not the polished version, but the raw, strange, heartbreaking, and sometimes jaw-dropping truth buried beneath the surface. So let’s dig in.
Chicago, Illinois: The Secret City Beneath the City
Most people know Chicago for its towering skyline and deep-dish pizza. Few know what’s running beneath their feet. Forty feet below the streets of downtown Chicago, tunnels once carried freight on a narrow two-foot electric railroad. This wasn’t a rumor or a myth. It was a fully operational underground freight network.
By 1914, about 60 miles of tunnel had been constructed, typically seven feet six inches high and six feet wide, with two-foot gauge track. The Chicago Tunnel Company built those 60 miles of tunnels before securing a single client, and once the network was complete, they approached downtown buildings with services including telephone and telegraph connections, and coal, mail, and merchandise deliveries…