How Chicago Jacked Itself Up | Raising an Entire City | 1850s Engineering 🏙️

Added: 2026-04-29

[00:00:00]In the 1850s, the growing city of Chicago was sinking into a disease-ridden swamp.

[00:00:04]Built on flat mud, the streets suffered from horrific drainage failures and deadly [music] cholera outbreaks.

[00:00:11]To install a functioning gravity-based sewer system, engineers made a radical decision.

[00:00:16]The entire street level had to be raised by up to 14 ft.

[00:00:19]Instead of demolishing the architecture, workers placed thousands of heavy jack screws beneath massive brick hotels and entire commercial blocks.

[00:00:28]On a coordinated [music] whistle, hundreds of men turned the iron screws in precise unison.

[00:00:32]The multi-story buildings [music] rose so smoothly, the businesses never closed, allowing citizens to casually shop and dine inside structures actively floating upwards.

[00:00:41]Using nothing but muscle and mechanical leverage, >> [music] >> an entire American metropolis physically lifted itself out of the mud.