New port facilities at Lake Calumet followed completion of the St. Skokie Swift service brought rapid transit back to Skokie in 1964, and two new lines were constructed in expressway medians: the extension to Jefferson Park and the Dan Ryan line to 95th Street. Population 3,369,359 The expressway network (shown in rose) radiating from the Loop was finished. The full tollway network and Calumet Skyway opened in 1958. New development was most pronounced in the Morton Grove, Skokie, Niles, and Des Plaines areas, areas served by the new Edens Expressway or near the new O'Hare International Airport. The Garfield Park line was cut back to Desplaines Avenue and relocated to the median of the new Congress (now Eisenhower) Expressway. Population 3,550,404 CTA closed several rapid transit branch lines during the 1950s, including the Stockyards, Kenwood, Humboldt Park, and Normal Park lines. A postwar building boom filled in the city and the first ring of suburbs with new houses, and increasing auto ownership meant the development of areas far from public transit lines. After the Chicago Transit Authority took over rapid transit operations in 1947, service to Niles Center was ended. Population 3,620,962 The State Street subway opened in 1943. Lake Shore Drive became the city's first express highway. Population 3,396,808 The Depression hit Chicago hard, ending the city's building boom. The Cal-Sag Channel opened, connecting Lake Calumet port facilities to the Sanitary & Ship Canal. New landfill areas created more lakefront parkland, some of which was used for the 1933-34 Century of Progress Exposition. Elevated extensions to Dempster (Niles Center, now Skokie) and 22nd & Mannheim (Westchester) were expected to serve new developments, but the Depression ended the city's homebuilding boom. Population 3,376,438 A decade of frantic growth resulted in thousands of new bungalows encircling the city. The North Shore Channel was dug to provide fresh water to flush the stagnant North Branch of the Chicago River. Population 2,701,705 The L was extended to Wilmette and Berwyn. Population 2,185,283 Extensions to the elevated lines reached into developing areas and even beyond the city limits. The new Sanitary and Ship Canal replaced the Illinois & Michigan Canal. Both the L lines and new electric streetcar lines spurred development in outlying areas. Population 1,698,575 The first elevated line opened in 1892 and was quickly followed by others reaching far out into the neighborhoods. New cable car lines reached further out from the Loop than the old horsecars could. Other settled areas, such as Evanston, Oak Park, and Maywood, remained independent of the city. Population 1,099,850 The city's territory more than doubled as surrounding towns agreed to annexation in 1889. Population 503,185 Post-Fire resettlement led to development of outlying neighborhoods and the first commuter suburbs, which appear like beads strung along the radiating railroad lines. The city became a manufacturing center as well as the center of Western agricultural trade. Population 298,977 City limits have been extended, and development extended in fingerlike patterns out along the half-dozen horsecar lines. The first horsecar line opened in 1859, along State Street from Randolph to Roosevelt. Population 109,260 A dozen railroad lines now reached the city, and settlement reached west and north of the Chicago River. The first railroad reached the city the same year. The Illinois & Michigan Canal, opened in 1848, connected the city to Downstate Illinois and the Mississippi Valley. Population 29,963 The built-up area of the young city (green) extended only a third of the way to the city limits. This animated map shows Chicago's growth decade by decade.
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