Springfield, Illinois

Springfield is the capital of the U.S. state of Illinois and the county seat of Sangamon County with a population of 116,250, as of the 2010 U.S. Census, making it the sixth most populated city in the state. It is the largest city in central Illinois. As of 2013, the city's population was estimated to have increased to 117,006, with just over 211,700 residents living in the Springfield Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes Sangamon County and the adjacent Menard County. Present-day Springfield was first settled by European Americans in the late 1810s, around the time Illinois became a state. The most famous past resident is Abraham Lincoln, who lived in Springfield from 1837 until 1861, when he went to the White House as President. Major tourist attractions include a multitude of historic sites connected with Abraham Lincoln including his presidential museum, his home from 1837 to 1861, his tomb at Oak Ridge Cemetery, and the historical town of New Salem, with a short drive from the city.

Springfield station (Illinois)

Springfield is a brick railroad depot in Springfield, Illinois, the state capital. It is at mile 185 on Amtrak's Illinois and Missouri Route. As of 2007, it is served by five trains daily each way: the daily Texas Eagle, and four daily Lincoln Service schedules.

History

The station was originally constructed by the Chicago and Alton Railroad in 1895 and is one of three historic railroad stations still existing in the city, along with the Lincoln Depot built by the Great Western Railroad in 1852 and Springfield Union Station built by the Illinois Central Railroad in 1898. Prior to the start up of Amtrak on May 1, 1971 it was operated by a successor company, the Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Railroad, and was served by a variety of named trains, including the Alton Limited, the Abraham Lincoln, and the Midnight Special.

The passenger station is decorated with a small mural. Painted on the wall atop the ticket office, the mural features a route map of the post-1947 Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Railroad and a quote from Abraham Lincoln. “May our children and our children’s children to a thousand generations continue to enjoy the benefits conferred upon us by a united country.” The mural and quote celebrate the reunion of the North and South; the state seals surrounding the mural are from the seven states (Alabama, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri and Tennessee) served by the GM&O. The mural is the work of Louis Grell of Chicago.

Illinois

Illinois (ⁱ/ˌɪlᵻˈnɔɪ/ IL-i-NOY) is a state in the midwestern region of the United States. It is the 5th most populous state and 25th largest state in terms of land area, and is often noted as 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, timber, and petroleum in the south, Illinois has a diverse economic base and is a major transportation hub. The Port of Chicago connects the state to other global ports from the Great Lakes, via the Saint Lawrence Seaway, to the Atlantic Ocean, as well as the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River, via the Illinois River. For decades, O'Hare International Airport has been ranked as one of the world's busiest airports. Illinois has long had a reputation as a bellwether both in social and cultural terms and politics.

Although today the state's largest population center is around Chicago in the northern part of the state, the state's European population grew first in the west, with French Canadians who settled along the Mississippi River, and gave the area the name, Illinois. After the American Revolutionary War established the United States, American settlers began arriving from Kentucky in the 1810s via the Ohio River, and the population grew from south to north. In 1818, Illinois achieved statehood. After construction of the Erie Canal increased traffic and trade through the Great Lakes, Chicago was founded in the 1830s on the banks of the Chicago River, at one of the few natural harbors on southern Lake Michigan.John Deere's invention of the self-scouring steel plow turned Illinois' rich prairie into some of the world's most productive and valuable farmlands, attracting immigrant farmers from Germany and Sweden. Railroads carried immigrants to new homes, as well as being used to ship their commodity crops out to markets.

Illinois (disambiguation)

Illinois is a state in the United States.

Illinois may also refer to:

Places

Schools

Ships

SS Illinois (1873)

SS Illinois was an iron passenger-cargo steamship built by William Cramp & Sons in 1873. The last of a series of four Pennsylvania-class vessels, Illinois and her three sister ships—Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana—were the largest iron ships ever built in the United States at the time of their construction, and amongst the first to be fitted with compound steam engines. They were also the first ships to challenge British dominance of the transatlantic trade since the American Civil War.

Though soon outclassed by newer and larger vessels, Illinois was destined to enjoy a long and distinguished career, first as a transatlantic passenger liner and later as the U.S. Navy's auxiliary vessel USS Supply. In the 1870s, Illinois may have been the first ship to successfully transport a shipment of fresh meat from the United States to Europe, twenty years before the introduction of refrigeration. As USS Supply, the ship served in both the Spanish–American War and the First World War, and crew members may have been the first United States personnel to fire a hostile shot in the latter. Illinois was scrapped in 1928.