Streets and highways of Chicago

treet layout

Chicago's streets primarily follow the grid system established by the Chicago Board of Aldermen in 1908 and implemented on September 1, 1909. All addresses are numbered outward from baselines at State Street, which runs north and south, and Madison Street, which runs east and west. Street numbers begin at "1" at the base lines and ascend numerically to the city limits. Letters (N, S, E, or W) indicate directions.

The city of Chicago is divided into one-mile sections which nearly everywhere contain exactly 8 blocks to the mile. Every average block is assigned a new series of 100 numbers. Therefore, each 800 in numbers is one mile. (North-south blocks in and just south of downtown are an exception to the 800-to-a-mile rule: Madison (0 N/S) to Roosevelt (1200 S) is one mile, as are Roosevelt to Cermak (2200 S) and Cermak to 31st Street (3100 S). The normal 800 rule resumes south of 31st Street so that Pershing Road (3900 S) is one mile south of 31st.)

The blocks are normally counted out by "hundreds," so that Chicagoans routinely give directions by saying things like "about one thousand north on Western" or "around twenty-four hundred west on Augusta" (which both describe locations near the intersection of Western Avenue (2400 W) and Augusta Boulevard (1000 N)).

South of Madison Street most of the east-west streets are simply numbered. The street numbering is aligned with the house numbering, so that 95th Street is exactly 9500 South. "Half-block" east-west thoroughfares in this area are numbered and called places; 95th Place would lie just south of and parallel to 95th Street, and just north of 96th Street.

Every four blocks (half-mile) is a major secondary street. For example, Division Street (1200 N) is less important than either Chicago Avenue (800 N) or North Avenue (1600 N), but is still a major thoroughfare. However, this is not always the case; for example, on the city's Far North Side, Peterson Avenue (6000 N) is a more heavily trafficked street than Bryn Mawr Avenue (5600 N), which sits exactly at the 7-mile marker. U.S. Route 14 is routed along Peterson between Clark Street at 1600 W and Cicero Avenue/IL Route 50 at 4800 W, whereas Bryn Mawr is discontinuous, split into two segments in this part of the city by Rosehill Cemetery between Damen and Western Avenues.

Even-numbered addresses are found on the north and west sides of a street, and odd numbers are found on the south and east sides, irrespective of the streets' position relative to the corner of State and Madison. Diagonals, even if they were to run exactly 45 degrees off of the cardinal directions, are numbered as if they were north-south or east-west streets.

The northernmost street in Chicago is Juneway Terrace, just north of Howard Street. The southern boundary is 138th Street. The eastern boundary of Chicago is Avenue A/State Line Road along and south of 106th Street, and the furthest west the city extends is in the portion of O'Hare Airport that lies in DuPage County, just east of Elmhurst/York Road.

treet names

While all north-south streets within city limits are named, rather than numbered, smaller streets in some areas are named in groups all starting with the same letter; thus, when traveling westward on a Chicago road, starting just past Pulaski Road (4000 W), one will cross a mile-long stretch of streets which have names starting with the letter K (From east to west: Komensky, Karlov, Kedvale, Keeler, Tripp, Kildare, Kolin, Kostner, Kenneth, Kilbourn, Kolmar, Kenton, Knox, Kilpatrick, Keating), giving rise to the expression "K-town." These streets are found approximately in the 11th mile west of the Indiana state line, and so begin with the 11th letter of the alphabet. A mile later, just past Cicero (4800 W), the starting letter changes to L, and mile by mile the letters progress up to P. Additionally, for most of the first mile west of the Illinois/Indiana state line, streets are lettered from Avenue A at the state line (4100 E) to Avenue O (3430 E), forming the A group. The areas that might otherwise be the B through J groups are the older parts of the city where street names were already well established before this system was developed (although some small groups of streets seem to have been given names intended to conform to the system), and the Q group (8800 to 9600 W) would fall west of the city, as the only land in Chicago west of 8800 West is O'Hare Airport, undeveloped forest preserve, and a small strip of land connecting O'Hare to the rest of the city and containing only Foster Avenue.

See also Etymologies of place names in Chicago, Illinois.

uburbs

Some suburbs number their east-west streets in a continuation of the Chicago pattern, and even more number their houses according to the Chicago grid. A few suburbs also number their north-south avenues according to the Chicago grid, although such numbering vanished from Chicago itself long ago (the alphabetical naming scheme was devised to help eliminate it). For example, the 54/Cermak terminus of the Chicago 'L' rapid transit system is located near the intersection of 54th Avenue and Cermak Road (22nd Street) in Cicero. This is 54 blocks west of State Street in Chicago. A minor street 54½ blocks west of State Street would be called 54th Court.

This pattern continues west to Plainfield, which has a 252nd Avenue. Suburbs that follow the Chicago numbering system include Niles, Rosemont, Morton Grove, Skokie, Lincolnwood, Evergreen Park, Oak Lawn, Oak Forest, Matteson, unincorporated parts of Des Plaines, and other parts of Cook County, Will, and DuPage Counties. Other suburbs, including Evanston, Park Ridge, Oak Park, and Glenview, use their own numbering systems.

Some Chicago suburbs in adjoining Northwest Indiana also use the Chicago numbering system. These include Whiting, Indiana and Hammond, Indiana while adjoining Munster, Indiana, Highland, Indiana, Griffith, Indiana are based on the Gary, Indiana numbering system beginning with 5th Avenue in Gary and slowly working south with streets named 15th Avenue and 45th Avenue and examples in far south Lake County, Indiana near Lowell and Cedar Lake include 109th Avenue, 117th Avenue and 203rd Avenue. The pattern also occurs in Waukegan Illinois with Washington Street being the baseline between N/S nearby municipalities such as Gurnee, Park City, and North Chicago continue with the Waukegan numbering pattern, while all rural areas follow the Chicago grid.

Grid

Major mile streets

(No part of Golf Road, Dempster Street, or Oakton Street actually lies within the boundaries of Chicago. These streets are included for reference, since they are a continuation of the Chicago mile street pattern into the suburbs.)

Downtown

Many streets in downtown Chicago are considered major streets:

*North/south:
**Canal Street (500 W)
**Wacker Drive (400 W)
**Franklin Street (300 W)
**Wells Street (200 W)
**LaSalle Street (150 W)
**Clark Street (100 W)
**Dearborn Street (36 W)
**State Street (1E/1W)
**Wabash Avenue (44 E)
**Michigan Avenue (100 E)
**Columbus Drive (300 E)
**McClurg Court (400 E)

*East/west:
**Oak Street (1000 N)
**Chicago Avenue (800 N)
**Huron Street(700 N)
**Ohio Street (600 N)
**Illinois Street (500 N)
**Grand Avenue (530 N)
**Kinzie Street (400 N)
**Wacker Drive (300 N)
**Lake Street (200 N)
**Randolph Street (150 N)
**Washington Street (100 N)
**Madison Street (1N/1S)
**Monroe Street (100 S)
**Adams Street (200 S)
**Jackson Boulevard (300 S)
**Van Buren Street (400 S)
**Congress Parkway (500 S), leads to the Eisenhower Expressway
**Harrison Street (600 S)
**Polk Street (800 S)

econdary streets

*East/west:
**10000 N- (Old Orchard Road)
**9200 N- (Church Street)
**8400 N- (Main Street)
**7600 N- Howard Street
**6800 N- Pratt Avenue
**6000 N- Peterson Avenue
**5200 N- Foster Avenue
**4600 N- Wilson Avenue (not a half-mile)
**4400 N- Montrose Avenue
**3600 N- Addison Street
**2800 N- Diversey Avenue
**2000 N- Armitage Avenue
**1200 N- Division Street
**1000 S- Taylor Street (not a half-mile)
**1600 S- 16th Street
**2600 S- 26th Street
**3500 S- 35th Street
**4300 S- 43rd Street
**5100 S- 51st Street
**5900 S- 59th Street
**6700 S- Marquette Road (67th Street)
**7500 S- 75th Street
**8300 S- 83rd Street
**9100 S- 91st Street
**9100 S- 99th Street
**10700 S- 107th Street
**11500 S- 115th Street
**12300 S- 123rd Street
**13100 S- 131st Street

The half-mile numbered streets on the South Side are all secondary streets: 35th, 43rd, 51st, 59th, etc.; all are numbered aside from Marquette Road, running at 6700 S, west from Martin Luther King Jr. Drive (400 E) to the city's western limit at Cicero Ave (4800 W), near Midway Airport. East of King to near Lake Michigan at 2400 E, it is called 67th Street, and Marquette is aligned one block to the north on what would be 66th Street.
*North/south:
**9400 W- River Road
**8400 W- Cumberland Avenue
**7600 W- Oriole Avenue
**6800 W- Oak Park Avenue
**6000 W- Austin Avenue
**5200 W- Laramie Avenue
**4400 W- Kostner Avenue
**3600 W- Central Park Avenue
**3400 W- Kimball Avenue (Homan Ave) not a half-mile
**2800 W- California Avenue
**2000 W- Damen Avenue
**1200 W- Racine Avenue
**400 E- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Drive (King Drive)
**1200 E- Woodlawn Avenue
**2000 E- Jeffery Boulevard
**2800 E- Torrence Avenue
**3000 E- Commercial Avenue (not a half-mile)
**3600 E- Avenue L

(No part of Old Orchard Road, Church Street, or Main Street actually lies within the boundaries of Chicago. These streets are included for reference, since they are a continuation of the Chicago mile street pattern into the suburbs.)

The numbering system is also copied in Milwaukee.Fact|date=April 2007

Diagonal Streets

The following streets run diagonally through Chicago's grid system on all or part of their courses. These streets tend to form major 5 or 6-way intersections. In many cases they were Indian trails, or were among the earliest streets established in the city.

* N. Rogers Avenue
* N. Ridge Avenue/Boulevard
* N. Broadway Street
* N. Clark Street
* N. Rush Street
*
* N. Sheridan Road
* N. Caldwell Avenue
* N. Lehigh Avenue
* N. Clybourn Avenue
* N. Kingsbury Street
* N. Elston Avenue
* N. Avondale Avenue
*
* N. Northwest Highway
* W. Forest Preserve Drive
* W. Higgins Avenue
* W. Grand Avenue
*
* W. 5th Avenue
*
* S. Blue Island Avenue
* S. Canalport
*
* W. Columbus Avenue
* S. Vincennes Avenue
* S. Beverly Avenue
* S. Anthony Avenue
* S. South Chicago Avenue
* S. Exchange Avenue
* S. South Shore Avenue
* S. Indianapolis Boulevard

Highways

The city of Chicago proper has seven major interstate highways crossing through it. However, the various roadways are more typically known to Chicagoans not by their Interstate numbers but rather by various given names.

Expressways in Chicago

*The Kennedy Expressway from the junction with the Edens south to the southern terminus of the expressway.

*Interstate 190 .

*The Jane Addams Memorial Tollway .

*The Edens Expressway .

*The Dan Ryan Expressway . There are express and local lanes running through downtown Chicago on the south side of the city which were under construction until their completion in November 2007.

*The Eisenhower Expressway (U.S. 41).

*The Stevenson Expressway ) and on into central Illinois.

*The Veterans Memorial Tollway .

*The Ronald Reagan Memorial Tollway . Then it heads through the western suburbs into north-central Illinois.

*Interstate 57 south-southwest to the southern suburbs. Known originally as the "Dan Ryan West Leg", the name has since dropped from common usage.

*The Bishop Ford Freeway ; south of that point it is signed as Illinois Route 394.

*The Chicago Skyway .

*The Tri-State Tollway (which continues east past the eastern terminus of Interstate 294 as the Kingery Expressway and on into Indiana).

*The Kingery Expressway, border.

*Lake Shore Drive . Parts of Lake Shore Drive are constructed at or near expressway grade, but there are a number of at-grade intersections, especially near downtown. Nonetheless, "LSD" (as it is often referred to) is a major arterial with a great deal of cultural as well as transportation significance to Chicagoans.

Minor Freeways

*The Elgin Bypass with exits at State Street, McLean Blvd, and Randall Road before continuing as an at-grade road.

*The Kingery Highway . South of 55th Street it is a 4-lane surface road. North of Roosevelt Road, it is a 6-lane divided highway.

*The Amstutz Expressway . It has only one exit at Grand Avenue.

*The Elgin O'Hare Expressway is an unsigned expressway that was originally planned to connect to Interstate 190 and the Elgin Bypass, hence the name. It heads west from Rohlwing Road in Itasca through Roselle and Schaumburg until terminating at an interchange with U.S. Route 20.

U.S. highways

*U.S. Highway 41 enters through the southeastern part of the city from Indiana as a part of U.S. 12 and U.S. 20, underneath the bridge linking the Chicago Skyway and the Indiana Toll Road. It traverses the southeast side of the city until it becomes South Shore Drive, and eventually Lake Shore Drive. U.S. 41 then departs from Lake Shore Drive at Foster Avenue. From Foster Avenue, U.S. 41 continues northwest on Lincoln Avenue, finally exiting Chicago at Devon Avenue into the suburb of Lincolnwood.
*U.S. Highway 14 splits off from U.S. Highway 41 at Bryn Mawr Avenue by Lake Michigan on the north side of the city. U.S. 14 then recrosses U.S. 41 and eventually exits the city as Caldwell Avenue.
*U.S. Highway 12 and U.S. Highway 20 enter the city proper on the far south side on 95th Street at Western Avenue. They stay together until they join U.S. 41 in the south side, and exit together into Indiana. U.S. 12 crosses back into Chicago by O'Hare Airport concurrent with U.S. 45.
*U.S. Highway 45 remains mostly outside of Chicago, crossing Interstate 190 as a part of U.S. 12 and U.S. 20. It follows the Des Plaines River as the Des Plaines River Road or Mannheim Road.

Driving distances

The driving distances listed below are approximate estimates; the actual distance may vary slightly based on the starting point, route taken or what is considered the "city center" from Chicago to another city. You can generally assume that each distance listed is the shortest distance from Chicago to another city.

Interesting facts

*On the first day of implementing the modern street numbering system 75% of the mail was incorrectly addressed.
*There were thirteen streets named Washington at the beginning of the 20th century.
*Chicago's longest thoroughfare is Western Avenue at 23.5 miles.
*Milwaukee and Elston Avenues (both northwest-southeast diagonals) intersect twice—at 800 north (at Fry Street, just north of Chicago Avenue) and again at 6200 north (at Melvina Avenue, just north of Peterson Avenue). So do Princeton & Harvard, two curved streets on the south side. Sheridan Road crosses Broadway three times, first at 3850 north (between Grace and Dakin), secondly near 4400 north (at Montrose) and finally at 6400 north (near Devon).
*Only Wacker Drive has buildings addressed north, south, east and west. It is the only road in Chicago to exist on both sides of both Madison Street and State Street.
*Some streets are named after all the past presidents, in order, but they skipped Tyler purposely. [ [http://chicagology.com/chicago-geography/streetnames/ Chicago Street Names : chicagology ] ]
*There are several parcels of land around O'Hare that are in the City of Chicago, but are assigned suburban addresses and zip codes when new buildings are constructed. An example would be 423 W Touhy Ave, Des Plaines, 60018 which is really 12555 W. Touhy Ave., Chicago, IL 60666. [ [http://198.173.15.21/ccao/ParcelDetails.asp?PIN=08361010270000&CalledBy=&DialogYN= Parcel Details ] ] Both addresses are listed in the front to reduce confusion.
*Des Plaines and Elk Grove Village have their own street numbering system. Businesses located on land annexed by Chicago now have a Chicago address, but continue to use their old street number, even though they are non-conforming to the Chicago street numbering system. This would lead to confusion as 401 W Touhy Ave., Chicago, Illinois [ [http://198.173.15.21/ccao/ParcelDetails.asp?PIN=8361010280000&CalledBy=&DialogYN= Parcel Details ] ] would suggest a property located in Lake Michigan.

References

ee also

*Multilevel streets in Chicago (including Wacker Drive)
*U.S. Route 66
*Bicycling in Chicago
*Chicago Pedway
*Chicago Tunnel Company
*La Salle Street Tunnel
*Van Buren Street Tunnel
*Washington Street Tunnel
*Philo Carpenter
*Matthew Laflin
*Horatio G. Loomis
*Philip Maxwell