Chicago is a major junction in Phileas Fogg’s dash across the United States, linking the route from Omaha to the railways running east toward New York. Its importance lies less in sightseeing than in the speed of the connection: Fogg reaches the city on December 10 and changes trains at once, yet the onward journey still brings him to the Hudson River after his intended steamer has departed.

Setting and Railway Connections

Chicago stands on the shore of Lake Michigan. In the novel’s account, the city has risen from its ruins and sits more proudly than before beside the lake. Its place in the journey is defined by its links with other lines: Omaha, the Pacific Railroad’s terminus, connects to Chicago through the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad, which runs east through fifty stations.

That connection makes Chicago a transfer point rather than the end of the west-to-east railway journey. From the city, Fogg can continue toward the Atlantic seaboard by another railway. The network offers rapid movement across great distances, but the journey depends on making each connection in time.

Fogg’s Arrival and Transfer

After crossing Iowa by way of Council Bluffs, Des Moines, and Iowa City, Fogg’s party travels through the night across the Mississippi at Davenport and enters Illinois by way of Rock Island. The train reaches Chicago at four o’clock in the afternoon on December 10. The party has seen nothing of the city; their purpose is to continue the journey, not to visit its sights.

Nine hundred miles remain between Chicago and New York. Fogg passes directly from one train to another, boarding the locomotive of the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne, and Chicago Railway. It speeds through Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, carrying the party toward the Hudson River. At a quarter past eleven on the evening of December 11, they reach the station on the river’s right bank, opposite the Cunard pier.

Narrative Significance

Chicago embodies both the reach and the limits of the expanding railway system. Its multiple connections allow Fogg to keep moving east with almost no pause, but speed cannot undo the time already lost: the China for Liverpool has left three-quarters of an hour before the party arrives. The missed departure turns the city’s successful rail transfer into only a partial victory. Chicago carries Fogg closer to his goal while making clear that a tightly timed global itinerary remains vulnerable to the gap between railway arrival and a ship’s departure.