Smokestacks remind us of a forgotten Chicago

Smokestacks remind us of a forgotten Chicago

WBEZ brings you fact-based news and information. Sign up for our newsletters to stay up to date on the stories that matter.

(photo by Lee Bey)

Carl Sandburg wrote about smokestacks and steel. And we were a city like that. Once.

Dark vapors used to curl from factory smokestacks; auburn tresses leaving an ephemeral trail across the sky. And chimney tops at the old South Side steel mills lit up the night air.

Much of that is a memory now—as much of a product of Chicago’s past as are the Stockyards, CTA paper supertransfers and FunTown Amusement Park.

But on a cold day like today, steam billows from the raised mouths of chimneys and former smokestacks around the city. And with it, the ghost of old smokestack Chicago returns. (pics after the jump)

(photo by Lee Bey)

(photo by Lee Bey)