Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
A River Runs Through It
Fun Fact
The Chicago River remains one of the most visible of the city's major
physical features. It's spanned by more movable bridges (52 at last
count) than any city in the world. An almost-mystical moment occurs
downtown when all the bridges spanning the main and south
branches—connecting the Loop to both the near-West Side and the
near-North Side—are raised, allowing for the passage of some ship or
barge or contingent of high-masted sailboats. The Chicago River has
long outlived the critical commercial function that it once performed.
Most of the remaining millworks that still occupy its banks no longer
depend on the river alone for the transport of their materials, raw and
finished. The river's main function today is to serve as a fluvial conduit
for sewage, which, owing to an engineering feat that reversed its flow
inland in 1900, no longer pollutes the waters of Lake Michigan.
Recently, Chicagoans have begun to discover another role for the river,
that of leisure resource, providing short cruises on its water, park
areas, cafes, and public art installations on its banks, and the begin-
nings of a riverside bike path that connects to the lakefront route near
Wacker Drive. Actually, today's developers aren't the first to wonder
why the river couldn't be Chicago's Seine. A look at the early-20th-
century Beaux Arts balustrades lining the river along Wacker Drive,
complete with comfortably spaced benches—as well as Parisian-style
bridge houses—shows that Chicago-based architect Daniel Burnham
knew full well what a treasure the city had.
Madison St.—is a mile's distance, while Racine Avenue, at the 1200 block of
West Madison Street, is 1
1
⁄
2
miles from the center. Madison Street then continues
westward to Chicago's boundary with the near suburb of Oak Park along Austin
Avenue, which, at 6000 W. Madison, is approximately 7
1
⁄
2
miles from point zero.
The key to understanding the grid is that the side of any square formed by
the principal avenues (noted in dark or red ink on most maps) represents a dis-
tance of half a mile in any direction. Understanding how Chicago's grid system
works is of particular importance to those visitors who want to do a lot of walk-
ing in the city's many neighborhoods and who want to plot in advance the dis-
tances involved in trekking from one locale to another.
The other ingeniously convenient aspect of the grid is that every major road
uses the same numerical system. In other words, the cross street (Division St.) at
1200 N. Lake Shore Dr. is the same as at 1200 N. Clark St., which is the same
as at 1200 N. LaSalle St., and so on.
STREET MAPS
A suitably detailed map of Chicago is published by
Rand
McNally,
available at many newsstands and bookstores for less than $5 (the
smaller, more manageable laminated versions cost $6.95). Rand McNally oper-
ates a thoroughly stocked retail store at 444 N. Michigan Ave. (
&
312/321-
1751
), just north of the Wrigley Building. Maps are also available at the city's
visitor information centers at the
Chicago Cultural Center
and the
Chicago
Water Works Visitor Center
(see “Visitor Information,” near the beginning of
this chapter).
