I wonder how many Tribune readers will remember one of the arguments advanced in support of the ”dreaded reversible-lane infrastructures” on Lake Shore Drive (Tempo, April 21) when they were installed in the mid-`30s?
Col. Robert R. McCormick of the Tribune, if my age-impaired memory serves me, was among the military experts who suggested that, if the retractable dividers were lowered in all lanes to provide a curb-to-curb flat surface, the Outer Drive, as it was then known, could serve as a landing field (nobody talked about ”airstrips” in that long-ago era) for bombing and fighting aircraft in time of national emergency!
Before anyone laughs too loudly at this suggestion, I would remind them that Chicago had permanently-manned anti-aircraft gun emplacements on the Outer Drive until well into the mid-`50s! Times and military tactical technology have undergone truly incredible changes.
