Month: August 2019

Did you ever wonder why Downtown Chicago is also called The Loop? The Loop is the name for the elevated rail system that forms the downtown hub of the Chicago CTA “L” system. It services about 75,000 riders a day and was historically called The Union Loop. It is 1.79 miles long and loops around a rectangle comprised of Lake Street (north side), Wabash Avenue (east), Van Buren Street (south) and Wells Street (west). It was constructed by Charles Yerkes in 1897. It includes these stations: Clark/Lake, State/Lake, Washington/Wabash, Adams/Wabash, Harold Washington Library – State/Van Buren, Lasalle/Van Buren, Quincy, Washington/Wells and Clinton. Five train lines run through The Loop “L”: Orange, Green, Purple Express, Brown and Pink.

The Ogden Union Station is a train station in Ogden Utah near Historic 25th Street. It is also near the Ogden Intermodal Transit Center. It was formerly the junction of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads. The first station was built in 1869 and a new more functional station was built in 1889 in the Romanesque Revival Style, with a large clock tower in the center. It had 33 hotel rooms, a restaurant, barbershop and other stores. That building was destroyed by fire and the current structure was completed in 1924 in the Spanish Colonial Revival style

The building is no longer a railway hub (train activity stopped in 1997), but rather a cultural hub that houses museums and stores such as the Utah State Railroad Museum, the Eccles Rail Center, the Browning Firearms Museum, Utah Cowboy and Western Museum and the Browning-Kimball Classic Car Museum.

I recently traveled to Utah for work. I was fortunate to be able to take in some sights in Salt Lake City, Utah. I saw some beautiful artwork at Salt Lake City International Airport, beautiful historical homes, downtown malls and shopping district and of course the Mormon Temple (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) and Temple Square.