News
On Sunday, February 26, at 2 p.m. I will be speaking at the Lemont Historical Society about the “Lost Town of Sag Bridge.” If you have not already attended this talk, I hope you will come. If you have attended it some years ago, you may like to come again, since the program has added content.
Many of Lemont’s earliest residents settled in an area of toady’s Lemont that was once a town in its own right. It changed names many times but is generally known now as Sag Bridge. It had a hotel, taverns, post office, general store, school district, fire department, train station, electric streetcar stop, and a port on the I&M Canal.
I will be talking about where Sag Bridge was, how it began, why it was important, what it was like, and why it ceased to exist. Admission is free, but the historical society would like you to register so they know how many handouts to prepare and can be sure there is room for all.
The following post is a sample of what will be included in the program.
Here’s the link to register. Hope to see you there!
I find it amazing that, over a hundred years ago, before the automobile was in general use, transportation to and from Lemont offered more options than today.
In the year 1905, for example, the following options were available:
- A few passengers took barges up or down the I & M Canal, still in operation at that time.
- Goods were primarily transported on the Sanitary and Ship Canal, which had opened in 1900.
- The Chicago and Alton Railroad had stations at both Lemont and Sag Bridge, steam trains in operation since 1858 for both passengers and freight.
- The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe, another steam train line, had passenger and freight service and a Lemont station since the mid-1890s.
- Both lines together transported passengers through Lemont on twenty trains per day, compared to today’s six.
- In 1899 an electric train (streetcar, or trolley) ran to Chicago from stations in Lemont and Sag Bridge and was extended to Joliet in 1901. Electric trains ran every hour in the winter, and every half hour in the summer, With stops along the way in both directions …
I remember green Chicago streetcars I used to ride as a child. I can still hear the rumble they made over the rails, the clang when they stopped or started, feel the shiny woven wicker seats, see the man who ran from the engineer’s place on one end to the opposite end when the car changed directions. It was fun for a child, and much preferable to stinky buses.
What I didn’t know was that electric cars ran for the most part on existing rails that were laid down for horse car lines as early as 1860 or so. Rails elevated the cars from muddy streets, made a more comfortable ride, and allowed for cars equipped to carry up to 30 passengers to be pulled by only one or two horses.
In the 1890s, after a brief fling with cable cars for a few years, the same rails were used to run trolleys that were powered by electricity—huge batteries over three feet tall, up to a hundred, stacked in rows. These sent power to overhead lines to which the trolleys connected.
First constructed was a line that ran from Lockport Street in Lemont, running a double row of rails down Main Street to Sag Bridge. This continued down Archer Avenue where passengers would transfer at Cicero and Archer to the Chicago system. It was extended a short time later in the opposite direction to Joliet, following much of today’s New Avenue.
Passengers loved the electric trains. They were clean and quiet, not loud, dirty and smoky like steam trains, and they were inexpensive, with frequent departures and stops along the way. They were not mere transportation—they were entertainment. The open-air trolleys offered relief from hot summer days and were a cheap and popular place to take a date.
The trolley was popular not only for work and business, but on weekends, bringing riders to picnics or to social and church gatherings. Funeral cars were arranged to transport caskets and friends to cemeteries. Recreational parks were developed along the route to attract more riders.
One popular park was Dellwood Park in Lockport. Its 70 acres had water fountains, a lagoon for boating, picnic areas, camping, concessions, a carousel, sulky races, and a dance hall. Today most of the structures and water features are gone, but picnic areas and a disc golf course have taken their place.
Ridership began to decline after World War I, when automobiles and passenger buses replaced the rail systems. The railway closed in 1933.
Electric trains made the trip from Joliet to downtown Chicago, transfer included, in about an hour and a quarter, for five cents. Think about that next time you’re stopped on the Stevenson in bumper-to-bumper rush hour traffic.
