Submitted by Taps Coogan on the 13th of May 2020 to The Sounding Line.

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“First in violence, deepest in dirt; loud, lawless, unlovely, ill-smelling, irreverent, new; an overgrown gawk of a village,” – Journalist Lincoln Steffens on Chicago in 1903.

The following map shows the Chicago ‘Central Business Section’ as it appeared in 1918, coincidentally during the Spanish Flu outbreak.

For an enlightening description of Chicago’s experience during the Spanish Flu, read here. As they say, there is nothing new under the Sun.

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