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The Loop

The Heart of CTA

This is the heart and soul of the Chicago CTA, and the city itself. The Loop does not gets it name from the 'L', but from an old Cablecar line that looped around city center before the 'L was built. 

The Loop was built to allow the different urban transit railroads to enter city center. The loop has undergone many changes over the years with track layouts, and stations closed or moved. The 'L' was threatened with demolition many times over the years, especially after the opening of the State & Dearborn subways. Luckily wiser minds prevailed. 

The loop is a two track affair rising above Wells St to the West, Lake St to the north, Wabash to the east and Van Buren to the south. There are two at grade junctions. Tower 12 at Wabash and Van Buren in the shape of a T. Tower 18 is the busy junction at Lake & Wells which as a full cross Jct, and a 3/4 grand union. At on time Tower 18 was the busiest railroad Jct in the world. Before the Dearborn subway opened there was one more Jct at the corner of Van Buren and Wells.

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