Chicago Union Station is interesting for a number of reasons. It was proposed in Daniel Hudson Burnham's Plan of Chicago in 1909, and was built in 1925-26. A good portion of it is underground, taking the cue from New York's Grand Central Terminal in selling air rights over the approach tracks. It is a double-ended station, with the even numbered tracks (Burlington, Pennsy, Chicago & Alton, and Big Four) on the South Concourse, and odd-numbers (Milwaukee Road) on the North Concourse. The Concourse Building itself was modelled after the interior of Pennsylvania Station in New York, which was modelled after the Roman baths of Caracalla. Unfortunately, it was demolished in 1969 and was replaced by an office tower of no architectural significance whatever. The combination Great Hall, waiting room, and railroad office building in one block west of the former Concourse, which means that the climactic scene of the movie Silver Streak (1976), with the train crashing into the Great Hall, is physically impossible, although a similar accident occurred at Washingotn Union Station (another Burnham design) in 1953. To this day, CUS serves 100,000 passengers each weekday, and is the Amtrak terminal for Chicago.

Camera: Canon AE-1 Program (35mm SLR)
Lens: Canon EF f1.8/50mm
Film: Kodak Ektachrome Elite (ASA 200)
Exposure: 2 seconds @ f22
Date: 16 August 2006
Negative #SV62-37
Cropped, spotted, framed, and captioned using Adobe PhotoShop &