I found this old vintage tinted postcard of Chicago on the internet.

This picture, shows the very crowded (And still is today.) intersection of State and Madison Streets in downtown Chicago Illinois, circa the early 1900's.

From 1882 until 1906 when they were eventually phased out for good, some of
Chicago's then competing public transit companies utilized cable cars on surface transportation routes. Chicago once had the world's largest cable car system during the late 1800's. The introduction of the electric powered city streetcar in 1893, proved to be far more reliable than the old cable cars.

San Francisco Californai introduced their cable cars in the year of 1871, and they are still running today. After seeing the success firsthand on a late 1800's era business trip to San Francisco California, several local Chicago politicians, businessmen and transit company executives declared that Chicago had to have a cable car system.

During that time, slow moving horse drawn streetcars and omnibuses, were the industry standard on early public transit company systems in North America.
Cable cars were actually the "State of the art" in public transportation technology back then.

Thanks.
Eddie K.