June 6, 1892: Chicago's "L" Begins Service

June 6, 1892: The Chicago and South Side Rapid Transit Railroad begins service, with a steam locomotive pulling 4 wooden coaches, carrying 25 people, departing from the 39th Street Station, and going to the Congress Street Terminal. This was the beginning of Chicago's elevated rail service, or "The L." The tracks in question are now part of the Chicago Transit Authority's Green Line.

In 1895, the L opened its "Loop": An elevated rectangle bounded by Lake Street on the north, Wabash Street Street on the east, Van Buren Street on the south, and Wells Street on the west. The term "The Loop" has come to become synonymous with downtown Chicago.

The city got its first underground line in 1943, with the State Street Subway. In 1947, the Chicago Transit Authority was formed, and it took control of the city's elevated, subway, streetcar and bus systems. In 1997, the city switched from tokens to farecards.

In 1900, the Addison Street Station was built. In 1914, the ballpark that would become Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs baseball team, was built a block away. In 1969, a line was built on the median of the Dan Ryan Expressway to the South Side, providing service at 35th Street for Comiskey Park, home of the Chicago White Sox baseball team, and its successor, Guaranteed Rate Field. Today, both Addison and Sox-35th stations are on the CTA's Red Line.

In contrast, neither Soldier Field, home of the NFL's Chicago Bears and MLS' Chicago Fire, nor the United Center, home of the NBA's Chicago Bulls and the NHL's Chicago Blackhawks, is within a 15-minute walk of an L or subway station, although the former is served by Metra commuter rail and both can be reached by CTA buses.

Today, the system runs this far from the Loop: North, 14 miles to Linden; south, 12 miles to 95th Street/Dan Ryan; and west, 16 miles to O'Hare International Airport. To the east, they are limited by Lake Michigan.

On the Blue Line, O'Hare is a 48-minute ride from downtown, making it faster than New York's Subway goes to John F. Kennedy International Airport. (Their Subway doesn't even go to the other 2 major airports in the area: La Guardia is only accessible by bus, and for Newark, a rider would have to switch to New Jersey Transit commuter rail at Penn Station.) Midway International Airport is even closer, 39 minutes on the Orange Line.

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June 6, 1892 was a Monday. The only professional sports league in operation in North America at the time was baseball's National League, and these games were played that day:

* The New York Giants beat the Louisville Colonels, 4-3 at the Polo Grounds. That structure burned down in 1911, and the most familiar version of the Polo Grounds was built on the site.

* The Brooklyn Bridegrooms beat the Cleveland Spiders, 5-3 at Washington Park in Brooklyn.

* The Boston Beaneaters beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 17-4 at the 2nd version of the South End Grounds in Boston. That structure burned down in 1894, and the 3rd and final version of the South End Grounds was built on the site.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the St. Louis Browns, 15-7 at the Philadelphia Base Ball Grounds. That structure also burned down in 1894, and what became Baker Bowl was built on the site.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Chicago Colts, 23-1 at Union Park in Baltimore.

* And the Cincinnati Reds beat the Washington Senators, 7-4 at Boundary Field in Washington. Lihe the Polo Grounds, that structure burned down in 1911, and what became Griffith Stadium was built on the site.

The Browns became the St. Louis Cardinals in 1900. The Colts became the Chicago Cubs in 1903. The Grooms, so named because several players got married during the 1887-88 off-season, became the Superbas in 1899 and the Dodgers in 1911. The Beaneaters went through a few name changes before settling on the Braves in 1912.

The Colonels, the Spiders, the Orioles and the Senators were contracted out of the National League after the 1899 season. That contraction made the American League possible in 1891, and it would have teams that had names formerly known to the National League: The Baltimore Orioles, the Boston Red Sox, the Chicago White Sox, the St. Louis Browns, and the Washington Senators.