Street layout
The streets of Chicago primarily follow the grid system which was established by the City Council in 1908 and implemented on September, 1st 1909. The baseline from which all streets and houses in Chicago are numbered are 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 run numerically in directions indicated to the city limits. Letters, N,S,E and/or W indicate directions.
The City of Chicago is divided into one mile sections which contain 8 blocks to the mile. Every average block is assigned a new series of 100 numbers. Therefore, every 800 in numbers is approximately one mile. There are three exceptions to the 800-to-a-mile rule: Madison (0 N/S) to Roosevelt (1200 S) is one mile, as is Roosevelt to Cermak (2200 S), and Cermak to 31st Street (3100 S). The normal 800 rule resumes south of 31st Street so that 39th Street (3900 S) is one mile south of 31st.
Even numbers are found on the North and West sides of the street. Odd numbers are found on the South and East sides.
Lowest and highest house numbers for all streets are given regardless of the continuity of the street.
South of Madison street many of the streets are simply numbered. These streets run East and West and the number of the street indicates its location and distance.
While all north-south streets in Chicago are named, rather than numbered, many of the smaller streets are named in groups all starting with the same letter; thus, when traveling westward on a Chicago road, one is likely to encounter a string of cross-streets starting with K, then many with L, and so on up to at least the letter O. The area that might otherwise be the "J" group is a part of the older city where street names were already well-established before this system was developed, and the "Q" group, were it to exist, would largely be beyond the western boundaries of the city. The existence of a "P" group is disputed.
Many of the suburbs of Chicago continue with the Chicago numbering system, and their exact location can be determined by street names and numbers. However, some suburbs do have their own numbering system.
Highways
The city of Chicago proper has seven major interstate highways crossing through it, but segments of each highway are named after influential politicians. Each segment represents a major link to the city center, so traffic reports tend to refer to the local highways by segment name instead of number. There is one practical reason for naming the interstate routes throughout the city of Chicago. For example, an individual referring to "55" might be misunderstood as meaning 55th Street instead of Interstate 55. In order to avoid confusion the term "Stevenson" would be more desirable.
Interstate highways
- Interstate 90 enters the Chicagoland area from the northwest by O'Hare Airport and travels through Chicago's Northwest Side. It is called the Northwest Tollway west of the Interstate 190 junction; east of that junction it is called the Kennedy Expressway. It joins with Interstate 94 on the north side. The expressway intersects with Interstate 290 at a junction called the Circle Interchange, close to the Chicago loop. Near the loop, Interstate 55 junctions with the Dan Ryan at a junction called the Spaghetti Bowl. The expressway turns south and is then referred to as the Dan Ryan Expressway until it splits off, turns southeast, and exits Chicago directly into the state of Indiana as the Chicago Skyway, becoming the west end of the Indiana Toll Road.
- Interstate 94 enters the Chicagoland area from the north at the Wisconsin border as the Tri-State Tollway. The Tri-State Tollway splits some distance northwest of the city, with Interstate 94 as the Edens Spur, which then heads east to join with U.S. Highway 41. South of this junction Interstate 94 is known as the Edens Expressway until its junction with Interstate 90 (the Kennedy Expressway). It remains the Kennedy Expressway until the junction with Interstate 290; south of that expressway, the two Interstates are known as the Dan Ryan Expressway. After the Chicago Skyway splits off from the Dan Ryan, Interstate 94 turns southeast at its junction with Interstate 57 while Interstate 57 turns turns southwest. South of the split with Interstate 57 it is known as the Bishop Ford Expressway. Outside of Chicago, Interstate 94 intersects with Interstate 80 and the Tri-State Tollway, turning east and becoming part of the Kingery (in Illinois) and Borman (in Indiana) expressways.
- Interstate 55 enters the Chicago area from the southwest, by Midway Airport. It runs southwest to northeast, and ends after the junction with the Dan Ryan Expressway at U.S. Highway 41, Lake Shore Drive. Interstate 55 is known as the Adlai Stevenson expressway, after a former governor of Illinois.
- Interstate 57 enters the Chicago area from the southwest, further south than Interstate 55. It ends at its junction with Interstate 94.
- Interstate 190 is technically the western end of the Kennedy Expressway. This short, three mile highway connects the Northwest Tollway and the mainline Kennedy Expressway with O'Hare Airport.
- Interstate 290 enters the Chicagoland area on the western edge of the city. It is known as the Eisenhower Expressway, and was known as Congress Parkway before that. Interstate 290 terminates at the Circle Interchange, but a four lane road passes through the junction into the heart of Chicago just south of the Loop. West of the city, Interstate 290 intersects with Interstate 88 (the Ronald Reagan Memorial Tollway) and Interstate 294, and splits off to become the Eisenhower Extension; it then intersects with Interstate 355 and becomes a non-toll portion of the North-South Tollway, which is occasionally referred to by its old name north of the tollway, Illinois 53.
- Interstate 294 does not actually pass through the city of Chicago except where it crosses Interstate 190. The Tri-State Tollway was built to circumvent the city entirely, joining with Interstate 94 several miles south and north of the city.
U.S. highways
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.
City Miles Kilometers
- Albuquerque,NM 1310 2113
- Atlanta,GA 715 1145
- Denver,CO 1085 1645
- Houston,TX 805 1758
- Kansas City,MO 526 871
- Los Angeles,CA 2077 3306
- San Antonio,TX 1210 1951
- San Diego,CA 2090 3371
- San Francisco,CA 2170 3500
- Seattle, Washington,WA 2050 3306
- Washington, DC 710 1145
- Wichita,KS 730 1177
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 turn of the 20th century.
- Chicago's longest thoroughfare is Western Avenue at 23.5 miles.
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