Photo: In 1905, Lake Shore Drive Was Thick With Horse And Buggies
By Sophie Lucido Johnson in Arts & Entertainment on Apr 22, 2016 7:35PM
If you long for a Chicago free of rush-hour traffic, your best bet might be to time travel to 1905. On Lake Shore Drive, you could stroll along the boardwalk and gaze out at lovely Lake Michigan, or you could hitch your family horse to your family buggy and go for a little jaunt along Lake Shore Drive, a dirt road in those days.
Buggies were the Model T (or Kia, for you people with no sense of history) of the early 19th century—affordable and ubiquitous, until the automobile made them obsolete. In 1905, when this was taken, they were actually, unbeknownst to all the buggy-riders in this photo, on their way out. Trains were starting to show the buggy's shortcomings when it came to speed and endurance. That year, the 18-hour train was introduced: suddenly, it only took 18 hours to go from Chicago to New York.
If you want to really get up close and personal with that photograph of the Chicago buggy's last hurrah, you can, too—Cool Old Photos has a high-res zoom-inable version that gets you up close and personal with the times.
