Opening of the Tunnel System

On February 10, 1904 the Illinois Tunnel Company hosted a dinner for 1200 members of the Press Club forty feet below the ground in a section of the freight tunnel. The occasion was the opening of the tunnel system. This article reports that during the speeches that followed the dinner, the President of the Illinois Tunnel Company, Albert G. Wheeler, reminded guests that Chicago had done something unique and "contrary to the custom of London, Paris and Boston" by deciding to "carry its freight instead of its people underground."