when it was closed during the construction of the Milwaukee-Lake-Dearborn-Congress subway, the Lake & LaSalle (now Clark & Lake) station of which intersected the tunnel's south ramp under Lake Street. As of 1954, the north tunnel portal was still extant, but both approaches are now filled in, although the tunnel itself still exists under the river. A ramp in the middle of LaSalle St. south of Kinzie St., an access down to Carroll Ave., is sometimes mistaken for the north portal, which was a block north and aligned below the current ramp. Van Buren St. The Van Buren St. tunnel was the last of the three built, and the only one built privately specifically for cable cars. Construction began in 1890 but progress was slow. Cable service started on March 24, 1894 and ended on July 22, 1906. The east approach began at Franklin St. Unlike the city-owned tunnels, it didn't go under the street itself, but 150 feet north of and parallel to it. This meant the cars had to slow down, turn north on Franklin, then immediately turn west into a driveway to the approach. It was a stone walled wide ramp which descended at 12% for before being covered under an alley. As the shortest tunnel it had the steepest grade. Under the river the tunnel had a single two-lane arched roof. West of the river the approach climbed to Clinton St. where the line had to turn south. Because of the entrances and steep approaches the tunnel always had operating problems. The tunnel, including the approaches, was long as built. A deeper replacement was built thru the original tunnel and opened to electric streetcar service in 1910. Closed again in 1915 to construct the approaches to the new Union Station, it was reopened in 1916. Closed to regular service in 1924, the tunnel was sometimes used until 1952, when all service ended. Plans for subways In 1937, Chicago petitioned the Public Works Administration (PWA) for funding for the State Street subway. Originally included in the proposal was a plan for two more streetcar tunnels. Harold L. Ickes vetoed this plan in favor of a Milwaukee-Dearborn subway, which was eventually enacted. Plans were made to incorporate the tunnel into a high-level subway to run under Washington Street between Clinton Street and Grant Park. The plans were expanded after the Second World War to add an additional high-level