A lovely map of the electric interurban lines radiating out from Chicago “over hill and valley, by lake and stream,” compiled by the Chicago Evening Standard newspaper. The source I obtained this map from tentatively dates it to 1921; perhaps people with more familiarity with the history of the railways represented would be able to verify this better than I can.

The map covers a massive area: over 200 miles from east to west, and 190 miles north to south — which indicates that there’s a fair bit of vertical compression, as the map is definitely not almost square in its dimensions. To be fair, there is some implied perspective in the drawing, almost as if the artist was in a hot air balloon or airplane way above the ground below, so locations to the top of the map are further away from our viewpoint.

The real advantage of this map being compiled by a third party (the newspaper) is that it shows all the many and varied interurban traction companies on the map equally, which almost certainly would never have happened if one the companies had made it themselves! Now, whether or not these companies coordinated their schedules to make connections between them useful is another matter altogether!

I particularly adore the large and elaborate title of the map filling the otherwise empty space of Lake Michigan almost completely, and I think that destinations called out in red text are meant to be the “scenic beauties” the map extolls.

Our final word: A charming illustrative map showing how expansive and ubiquitous interurban electric rail was in its heyday.

Source: UChicago Node