"So...apparently we built a city too low" **Slams beer down** "OK...hear me out...."

"Listen, lad. I built this kingdom up from nothing. When I started here, all there was was swamp. Other kings said I was daft to build a castle on a swamp, but I built it all the same, just to show 'em. It sank into the swamp. So, I built a second one. That sank into the swamp. So, I built a third one. That burned down, fell over, then sank into the swamp, but the fourth one... stayed up! And that's what you're gonna get, lad: the strongest castle in these islands."

Chicago, reminds me of another side or mega project; the Chicago tunnel system. Built to transport coal, remove ashes, and other goods beneath the streets of Chicago using small electric trains (mining locomotives). Shutdown in the Fifties and caused a flood in the Nineties.

Simon: "every new aircraft is a Mega project" Also Simon: "They lifted an entire city!?!? That's totally not a mega project*

This is really just one piece of the story. First the city was raised so that sewage would drain into the river. Then the river was reversed so the sewage didn't drain into the lake. More recently a new river was essentially dug 300ft underground so that sewage didn't drain into the actual river.

Maybe a video could also be done on the reversal of the Chicago River.

this was definitely a mega project lol

I'll bite on Simon's invitation to say that this deserves in the megaprojects. To underscore this point, European observers to the 1860 Republican convention were shocked when the city they arrived in was not the backwater frontier town reported in books on the United States, so quick was the Rise of Chicago.

As a lifelong Chicagoan, I love it when you tell her stories.

Bloody Christ ! How the hell is this not a megaproject?

While driving on Archer Ave. you would notice older building that have raised sidewalks seemingly leading to the front entrance. As you look down you notice a lower level with a door and window/s. Archer Ave. was a old cattle trail leading to the famous stockyards. They raised Archer Ave. fianally to cover the muddy trail after trains became the way to send animals for processing.

I figured it should have been on Mega Projects more for the sheer scale of the project and the fact that they literally jacked the city up with jacks. That they did so in 2 decades is all the more impressive. As well as that they did part of this project during the Civil War is also of some note.

Chicago: were sinking in a swamp. James Brown: Get up!

Dude, this was big enough to be a megaproject.

You left out the part where they reversed the flow of the Chicago river. It now runs from Lake Michigan rather than into Lake Michigan. This was done because Lake Michigan is the source of drinking water for the city and the sewage drained into the river. To enter the lake even today from the river you must go through a series of locks. The Chicago river now drains into the Mississippi Watershed.

Next Chicago story, moving the U505 to and into the museum?

Megaprojects - Hey here's another story about a really expensive airplane Sideprojects _ That's cool, here's a story about PHYSICALLY LIFTING AN ENTIRE CITY SEVERAL FEET I think the channels are backwards on this one Simon, but okay

OK Simon, Chicago actually has several mega projects stories. This one, the 40 feet below mail railroad, the el and subway, changing the direction of the river, the water pumping stations, the white city Columbian expo, rebuilding after the 1871 fire, 1931 expo, and did you do something on the deep tunnel, I've lost track.

🇬🇧Absolutely fascinating, especially as we live in UK. The marvellous Victorian builders. We know about our London history and that it has more rivers and canals than Venice. But to see the ‘Raising of Chicago’ was almost unbelievable for such large buildings & to carry on their trading whilst being moved! An excellent History lesson, thank you.🇬🇧

I knew this happened, just didn't know enough about this, hence lower Level of the city. Also imagine their disappointment when the city burned 20 year later.

That is among the single most insane projects that I have ever heard of and the scale of what they did and how fast they managed to do it is incredible. I'm not certain what sort of drugs engineers were on in those days but apparently they were pretty strong. The workers must have been hitting the PED's pretty hard. Absolutely amazing story.

I think the idea of "lesser quality" buildings being carted out of the city quite hilarious, most other places would have just demolished them and told the less-affluent occupants to sod off... :P

I love that you included people's experiences.

You should do a video about the raising (and reconstruction) of Galveston, TX (by 17 feet) and the construction of the seawall after the Great Storm of 1900. That's definitely a Megaproject.

Chicagoan here! Sounds weird to hear people who aren’t from Chicago say our street names. I appreciate this video though, I never knew the full story of how our city was raised

It could be said that a side project is actually pretty mega. Suggestion: The reconstruction of San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake.

Meanwhile in The Netherlands: Let's just lower the watertable.

*Lifting the second largest city in the US and fourth largest in world* Simon: ehhh a side project it is. 😂

Do a project on the actual sewage drainage where the city reversed the flow of water to cross the St Lawrence divide and drain their sewage down the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico.

Best Side Projects video so far! I've lived in Chicago my whole life, but I had no idea about the rolling houses part 👍

KZfaq: How many channels do you want to start? Simon: Yes!

The splendid streets of Chicago. Haven't been there lately Simon. Went there once just to see the U505.

That's insane, we would struggle to even attempt that today.

Seattle did something similar. In their case, however, they just raised the streets, covered the sidewalks and the former second floor (or first floor as called by you guys across the pond) became the ground floors. I did a very interesting tour of the Seattle "Underground" back in 1973 with my family.

Yeah, this definitely should have been on Megaprojects!

Hey Simon. That's where I live. You guys should totally do a video about the Pullman neighborhood on one of your channels. It's this creepy planned neighborhood for Pullmans workers. He had all of these weird regulations and sort of devolved into a dictator of sorts. Controlling aspects of his workers lives, super interesting stuff! I used to live close to a neighborhood called Back of the yards. This is where the gigantic slaughterhouses in Chicago used to be located. Believe it or not, the neighborhood still smells faintly of meat....sort of like that smell when you open a can of wet dog food. The slaughterhouses themselves used to be sort of a macabre tourist attraction. At one point leftover slaughterhouse animal remains were dumped into the Chicago river. This formed a 10+ feet deep layer of sludge on the bottom. The decaying animal parts release methane causing certain parts of the river bubble ever so slightly to this very day. The river also smells terrible and is considered to be an environmental disaster area. The city gets a bad wrap on the news. It's actually a very well to do and clean city in a lot of parts. We've got nice beaches, a governor who looks like mayor Quimby from the Simpsons and recreational marijuana. As the blues brothers would say...."sweet home Chicago"

Times this has happened over history: Razing a city : Countless Raising a city: Once

Yeah, definitely a megaproject.

That's an awesome story I never heard and I was born in Chicago!

"I just saw a building going down the street..." "Just one? wait till rush hour."

As a Chicagoan, the history always amazes me, but it also makes me sad how we could solve a problem like that but we can't seem to find an end to the ridiculous murder rate. I think America's philosophical shift from resourcefulness to individualism in the late 20th century is one of the harbingers of its downfall, Chicago included.

"hey, buddy. Can you give me a lift?"

It is clearly a sideproject: no one died from the process of lifting the city; there were not enormous cost overruns; no airplanes were involved; and, life went on like normal.

"Get up offa that thing, and try to release that pressure! Get up offa that thing, (ha!) and twist 'till you feel better" - James Brown the engineer

Sideprojects: idk man lifting a whole city isn't really a megaproject Megaprojects: Plane go brrr

I remembered when my dad talked bout this.....good vid

Okay, I give up; nothing I will ever do can possibly match this level of incredible-ness.

Wowzers! I was born and raised (mostly) in the U.S. and I never heard of this incredible project! I would have thought that it would have been at least mentioned in Social Studies class in high school. Thanks for bringing this topic to my attention. And yes, it seems to be worthy of your Megaprojects show.

As a Chicagoan, there's always something to be outraged about, but fuck I love this city

I may not know much, but I will say, I don't think this attitude exists in solving problems today. Very few willing to suggest ideas that work, but seem illogical, or take "too long." Raising the entire city might not have been the most effective solution, or the fastest, or the cheapest, but it worked. If the US adopted this type of attitude, we would be 10 or 20 years into a solution for pollution and climate change. This is a really cool video that I am going to keep in mind in my Urban Development class next semester.

Thank you for producing an incredibly informative SideProjects episode! The raising of Chicago wasn’t/isn’t included in history course curriculums in the United States. Fascinating indeed! 👍🏼

Love this video...Thank you for posting...

Just think, after spending two decades raising the city out of the mud, the whole thing burned down in 1871in the Great Chicago Fire

You know that they did something similar in Seattle, wa. You kinda did a video about it regarding the Seattle underground.

I was taught this in school. It instills in you a sense that the city works. City Skylines is easy to me because I build based on what I know about Chicago.

This is a really interesting video! Cheers!

Then years later after this engineering marvel, a cow starts a fire. Chicago is an interesting city

Definitely a megaproject. HOW DO THEY PUT THE JACKS UNDER THE BUILDING? HOW DO THE JACKS WORK? Come on, man ...

This is so incredible. I've heard this story before but this video does a really great job of going into such detail as to make me see what a HUGE project it was. (Ahem. Not really a side project...but I shan't go there....) I can't imagine this going on in a city and trying to imagine any city doing this nowadays is impossible.

There are still some neighborhoods where the houses are below ground and you have to go down stairs to the entrance

The Arecibo Observatory should get a video. It was damaged twice this year and might not survive much longer

Yet somehow they are "The Windy City" rather than "The Jack-Screwed Up city."

Thanks! Fascinating as always.

How have I not heard about this!? Or all the other things I'm learning from this channel that I am binge watching now. I am so excited to find such a plethora new knowledge tidbits. Excellent!

"Simon, what is it doing here, I am outraged" Damn right, how the hell is *lifting a city* NOT a mega project? The logistics behind that is insane, so, please, do one in mega projects, and go into more detail or maybe TIFO and cover the various other cities that have been raised and things on cities with undergrounds (Atlanta has one they built over) Also, what's your secret for being so calm when being outraged? XD

This is so obviously a hit piece funded by those bead wielding hippies.

Always watch your videos. Really enjoying this one as I am a lifelong Chicagoan. I was watching this and when my wife heard you mention Chicago, she stopped what she was doing and starting watching the video.

I learned this when I was working on a project. We excavated and found rail from old street cars and in some cases old tunnels.

This was a surprisingly common process during the 1800, off the top of my head, in addition to Chicago, Sacramento and Seattle have had the same procedure

That's why they call it "America.....the great."

Chesborough was a legend. He also built the cribs for the Water purification plant & helped with reversing the Chicago river

Nicely researched and produced -and Simon Whistler's brief crack-ups add a welcome dimension of authenticity to his presentation.

As always thx for great video👍

Cover reversing the flow of the Chicago River

This is an amazing story! Thank you for sharing it.

This was something I did not know, that I really needed to know! Thanks!

For such a grandiose city project it's a bummer we have only hand drawings, not a single photo, of the work in action.

I suggested this one for megaprojects. I'm not outraged, just happy that you did it. Thanks Simon!

Wow! Just wow! What an idea & what an amazing accomplishment.

In some parts of town you can still see the "gangway" or "vaulted" sidewalks that lead to what was previously the second floor but now is the ground floor. The first floor entrance is now basically one floor below street level. In the news recently was an accident where one of these vaulted sidewalks collapsed on a worker. If you google map "1800 W 23rd Street" you can see a typical row of homes whose first floor entrance now sits below grade.

Awesome content! Very amazing :-) thank you

If memory serves, the opposite of this was done in Seattle, in the early 1900, where the city was leveled to reduce the steep hills both north and south. They used the earth they remove to fill in the surrounding swampy lands, I think. I remember reading about it in an historical novel, where they stated that some landowner refused to lower their land, and ended up having their house standing atop a pillar of dirt.

My first thought seeing this on side projects... “what are you doing? This is a mega project. I am outraged” Glad to see Simon was on the same page

Very cool stuff. I learned something new today. Hard to believe they actually did this👍

I sincerely appreciate your work. Thank you 💯

I have seen 100s of your videos. Thank you for hosting and for your writing n editing crew ❤ But this was hands down the first video I've seen of yours that make my eyes almost fall out of my skull in bafflement. Manually jackscrew hydrolically lifted buildings in the 1800s? That's freaking badarse!

Interestingly enough, Seattle had a similar problem with waves flooding the downtown every year. Their solution was, wait for someone to leave a candle unattended, causing the whole downtown to burn down, and then just build the new downtown 10 feet above the smoldering ruins of the old one. Quick and easy! No jacks required.

Wow, how on earth is this the first time hearing of this. Bravo; what a video. Definitely should have gone in Megaprojects though!

That deep feeling you get when its new years eve and its 3am and your walking down a dark alley by yourself while its snowing.... powerful feelings.....powerful city...

This was very cool to watch. Thinking of so many people working together and making accommodations in order to improve the entire city.

Missing is the great Chicago fire of 1871. Legend has it that on an unusual warm night in October, Mrs. O'Leary went out to fetch a bucket of water for her cow. While she was pumping the water, the cow knocked over the lantern she left behind. The resulting massive fire consumed many of the frame dwellings and buildings. The end result was the city enacting new building and fire construction codes. The wooden structures were replaced brick and masonry ones.Whether this had any bearing on the lifting as described in this video, I don't know.

What an uplifting video. There are still some older neighborhoods where the street and sidewalk are about 6 feel above the front door of the houses.

Great video. Thank you.

Fascinating! A piece of history I'd never heard of.

They did the same thing with what's now known as Old Sacramento, California. Raised the whole city by 30 feet, what used to be 2nd Story windows, are now at ground level. San Francisco was raised as well.

Simon, why isn't this on the mega projects channel, I am outraged!

Chicago's a really unique American city. As a result of lifting up the downtown, there's all these tunnels from rail subways to the pedway -- a series of pedestrian tunnels between buildings. You can spend days underground getting everything from coffee to a marriage.

Simon. This definitely qualifies as a megaproject.

Thanks. I lived there for 35 years and hadn't heard this story. Two others related to drainage and Chicago, the Deep Tunnel project and the flooding of the Loop, both in the late 20th century.

I first heard about this in an old book written by a visitor to Chicago who was surprised to find the hotel in which he was staying slowly rising every day. He would return from the appointments he had in the city to find the outside stairway was taller every evening.