The Chicago and Joliet Electric Railway, or C&JE, was an electric interurban

Interurban

An interurban, also called a radial railway in parts of Canada, is a type of electric passenger railroad; in short a hybrid between tram and train. Interurbans enjoyed widespread popularity in the first three decades of the twentieth century in North America. Until the early 1920s, most roads were...

 railway linking the cities of Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

 and Joliet, Illinois

Joliet, Illinois

Joliet is a city in Will and Kendall Counties in the U.S. state of Illinois, located southwest of Chicago. It is the county seat of Will County. As of the 2010 census, the city was the fourth-most populated in Illinois, with a population of 147,433. It continues to be Illinois' fastest growing...

. It was the only interurban between those cities and provided a link between the streetcar network of Chicago and the cities along the Illinois River

Illinois River

The Illinois River is a principal tributary of the Mississippi River, approximately long, in the State of Illinois. The river drains a large section of central Illinois, with a drainage basin of . This river was important among Native Americans and early French traders as the principal water route...

 Valley in north central Illinois

Illinois

Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

, which were served by the Illinois Valley Division

Chicago, Ottawa and Peoria Railway

The Chicago, Ottawa and Peoria Railway, or CO&P, was an electric interurban railway running along the Illinois River Valley between Joliet and Princeton. It was one of the longest lines in the state and was unique as an isolated section of the Illinois Traction System. Intended to be a part of...

 of the Illinois Traction System.

History

The C&JE was an outgrowth of the Joliet streetcar system, which was acquired by the American Railways Company of Philadelphia at the turn of the century. In 1900 a line was built north from Joliet to Lemont

Lemont, Illinois

Lemont is a village located in Cook, DuPage, and Will Counties in the U.S. state of Illinois, and is roughly southwest of Chicago. The population was 16,625 at the 2007 Special Census.-History:...

, with an extension to Chicago opening in September 1901. The line ran along the Illinois River from downtown Joliet to the corner of Archer Avenue

Archer Avenue, Chicago

Archer Avenue, also known as Archer Road outside the Chicago, Illinois city limits, is a diagonal thoroughfare running northeast-to-southwest between Chicago's Chinatown and Lockport, Illinois...

 and Cicero Avenue on the edge of Chicago, where the tracks connected with the rails of the Chicago Surface Lines

Chicago Surface Lines

The Chicago Surface Lines was operator of the street railway system of Chicago, Illinois, from the years 1913 to 1947. The firm is a predecessor of today's publicly owned operator, the Chicago Transit Authority.-History:...

. In 1915 the C&JE became a subsidiary of Central Illinois Public Service Company

Central Illinois Public Service Company

The Central Illinois Public Service Company was an electric streetcar holding company and power utility first organized in 1902. Under its later quarter billion dollar holding company, CIPSCO Inc. , it merged in 1997 with the larger neighboring Union Electric Company of Missouri to form Ameren...

, which was owned by Samuel Insull

Samuel Insull

Samuel Insull was an Anglo-American innovator and investor based in Chicago who greatly contributed to creating an integrated electrical infrastructure in the United States. Insull was notable for purchasing utilities and railroads using holding companies, as well as the abuse of them...

. Despite the use of modern suburban-type interurban cars, C&JE ridership plummeted with the onset of the Great Depression

Great Depression

The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

and on November 16, 1933 the line was abandoned.

Route

The route of the railway took it into Lemont over what is now New Avenue, then eastward on Main Street, until it diverted alongside a steam railway to Route 83 where it crossed the river on its own trestle, then immediately headed for the north side of Archer Road. The rails ran on the north side of Archer all the way to Willow Springs. The right-of-way is still visible, and for a good distance in Willow Springs exists as a graveled stretch now used for parking. Past Willow Springs the rails ran to either side of Archer; the electrical station and car barns still stand as a catering business, the Legacy. As the rails neared the curve of Archer at what is now First Avenue in Summit the rails came together in the middle of the street pavement. East of Harlem Avenue they again went to the sides of the road, with the line sharing a double loop at Cicero with the city lines (the loop is still there, modified). The discontinuance of the line made possible the widening of Archer from two lines to four west of Cicero. A short extension left Archer in Summit to head down a long hill for Ogden Avenue, where it met the Lyons streetcar line.

Sources