A closer look
Welcome to the logistical heart of America, where human crane operators play high-stakes Tetris with the global economy all day long. A massive chunk of everything you buy passes through Chicago's rail yards, transitioning from cross-country trains to highway-bound trucks. The secret to this chaotic ballet is the intermodal gantry crane, a towering mechanical beast that straddles multiple tracks. It grips seventy-thousand-pound steel boxes and hoists them through the air with terrifying precision, dropping them onto truck chassis so fast that the drivers barely have time to finish their coffee before they are dispatched onto the interstate.
