George Pullman - Career in Chicago

Career in Chicago

He moved to Chicago as a young engineer, as it was a boom town that was expanding rapidly. He arrived in Chicago as that city prepared to build the nation's first comprehensive sewer system. He formed a partnership known as Ely, Smith & Pullman.

Chicago was built on a low-lying bog, and people described the mud in the streets as deep enough to drown a horse. Because the sewers could not be placed below ground in those conditions, Chicago planned its sewer project by installing the sewers on top of the street and covering them, effectively raising the street level 6–8 feet.

Pullman was one of the engineers who worked to raise the buildings of central Chicago to the new grade, and constructing new foundations under them. The Ely, Smith & Pullman partnership gained favorable publicity for raising the massive Tremont House, a six-story brick hotel, while the guests remained inside.

Read more about this topic:  George Pullman

Famous quotes containing the words career and/or chicago:

    Whether lawyer, politician or executive, the American who knows what’s good for his career seeks an institutional rather than an individual identity. He becomes the man from NBC or IBM. The institutional imprint furnishes him with pension, meaning, proofs of existence. A man without a company name is a man without a country.
    Lewis H. Lapham (b. 1935)

    You want to get Capone? Here’s how you get him: he pulls a knife, you pull a gun, he sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. It’s the Chicago way and that’s how you get Capone.
    David Mamet, U.S. screenwriter, and Brian DePalma. Jimmy Malone (Sean Connery)