Beneath Chicago Trivia Quiz

Answer: The Green Mill

One tunnel entrance can be found underneath the Green Mill tavern. The tunnels were not originally built for gangster use - they connected the tavern with its beer garden, located where the Uptown Theatre now stands. During the age of Prohibition, they were used both as an escape route for mobsters and as a hiding place for illicit alcohol.

Answer: Coal, mail and people on tiny trains

The Chicago Tunnel Company was responsible for sixty miles of two-foot gauge track running beneath the city. The tunnel grid stretched from what is now known as River North south to Chinatown, and from the Museum Campus all the way west to the River. One could write an entire quiz on this subject alone, but I will leave you with a great link for more info: users.ameritech.net/chicagotunnel/tunnel1.html

Answer: The first self-sustaining, synthetic nuclear reaction

The first man-made nuclear reactor, named Chicago Pile-1, was started in December of 1942 by Enrico Fermi and Leo Szilard. It was going to happen at the Argonne National Laboratory, but a labor strike resulted in the relocation of the event to an unceremonious gymnasium.

The reactor consisted of a stack of uranium and graphite blocks, controlled by rods coated in cadmium.

Answer: Lower Lower Wacker

Lower Lower Wacker Drive, or Sub Lower Wacker Drive, runs from Stetson Ave to Field Boulevard. It's mostly used for parking and service vehicles. The entire stretch of Lower Wacker was at one time known as Emerald City, named because of all of the mercury lights and the green glow they cast on the street.

Answer: Nothing--there was no land there during the Great Fire.

Until the 1830s, Lake Michigan came in as far west as what is now known as Michigan Avenue. By the time of the fire in 1871, a sandbar had built up around the pier but there wasn't much development on the sandy shore. The thriving area now known as Streeterville was built upon that sandbar and the huge amount of debris that was dumped into the lake during the post-fire cleanup.

Streeterville gets its name from George Streeter, a colorful fellow of the late 1800s who grafted his way into fraudulent ownership of most of the new lakefront property.

Answer: Roosevelt Road

Chicago's north-south streets are numbered starting from zero at Madison Street in the middle of the Loop. (Numbers increase at a rate of about 800 per mile in both directions.) However, as the Loop is considered to be its own district in modern times, the boundary between the Loop and the South Side is placed at Roosevelt Road.

Answer: Wooden sidewalks and streets

Chicago was doomed by strong winds and the huge amount of wood in the city. Most buildings were made of wood. The ships in the harbor were all wood. The riverbanks were lined with lumberyards and coal yards. The raised wooden sidewalks, sealed with pitch and stuffed underneath with years of accumulated straw and debris, carried the fire down every street for miles.

Answer: The Underground Railroad (duSable Museum of African American History)

As of 2009, the duSable Museum does not have an exhibit about the Underground Railroad. However, one can be found at the Graue Mill in the suburbs.

The Underground Adventure opened in 1999. It introduces visitors to creatures that live underground. The Coal Mine exhibit, open since 1933, lets you ride a lift down to the bottom of a "mine shaft" and learn about coal mining. The Wild Reef opened in 2003, and features sharks, eels and other diverse creatures of the coral reefs as seen through the glass of a massive tank.

Answer: Parking garage

The parking garage underneath Millennium Park can hold over 2100 cars.

Answer: 138th Street

95th Street is the southern terminus of the CTA Red Line. 54th Street/Cermak is the terminus of the Pink Line. 200th Street does not exist within Chicago's boundaries.

Answer: Lime pits and furnaces

Holmes confessed to 27 murders at his trial. 9 were proven, and the actual count could be as high as 230. Police investigating his three block long home found it to be a murder factory, with maze-like hallways, doors leading to nowhere, and numerous torture chambers. The building burned to the ground in 1895 while Holmes was in prison. Holmes was hanged for his crimes in 1896.

Answer: Reducing flooding and preventing the buildup of sewage in Lake Michigan

Chicago is mostly built on marshland. The entire area has been subject to terrible flooding since its earliest days. Numerous projects have tried to alleviate the problem, including the well-known reversal of the Chicago River's flow in the early 1900s.

The Deep Tunnel project is a massive underground gridwork of tunnels and reservoirs designed to absorb the excess rainwater and sewage. While it is not complete, parts of it are already operational. Sewage pollution has decreased markedly in local rivers and in Lake Michigan since the tunnel work began, and once-dreadful riverfront property now commands high prices.

Answer: Red and Blue

The Red and Blue lines run underneath the Loop in two parallel lines, connected by an underground passageway. The Blue Line also has some underground passages outside the loop on the O'Hare route.

Answer: Water

The Chicago Department of Water Management is responsible for supply and maintenance of fresh water systems and Chicago sewers. Chicago's tap water is mostly sourced from Lake Michigan, and is the least expensive of all of the city utilities.

Answer: Three

There are three levels below ground at the Willis Tower. The most well-known basement tenant is the US Postal System. Willis Tower has its own post office and its own ZIP code!