The city of Chicago was raised by several feet during the 1860s without disrupting daily life or businesses closing down to solve a drainage problem. Entire buildings, shopping centers, sidewalks and hotels were all lifted up manually by laborers using jackscrews while people went about their daily lives, shopped and dined. In one case, a large hotel was raised off the ground even while guests stayed on oblivious of what was going on underneath them:
"....one patron was puzzled to note that the front steps leading from the street into the hotel were becoming steeper every day and that when he checked out, the windows were several feet above his head, whereas before they had been at eye level. This huge hotel, which until just the previous year had been the tallest building in Chicago, was in fact raised fully 6 feet (1.8 m) without a hitch."
"....one patron was puzzled to note that the front steps leading from the street into the hotel were becoming steeper every day and that when he checked out, the windows were several feet above his head, whereas before they had been at eye level. This huge hotel, which until just the previous year had been the tallest building in Chicago, was in fact raised fully 6 feet (1.8 m) without a hitch."
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