Maps of Chicago

It's easy to get around the city of Chicago. The city was built with a grid system. The intersection of Madison Street and State Street is the center of the city. State Street runs north and south, and Madison Street runs east and west. Each of these streets is numbered 0. The farther from the city center a street is, the higher its number. Streets increase in number by a factor of 100. This is done in all four directions. There is no real east side of the city because of Lake Michigan. There are some streets that run on a diagonal, but most conform to the grid system. Once you get further out of the city, the grid fades away into a more suburban road style.

Chicago has one of the best public transportations systems in the country. The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) provides the city with both train and bus transportation. The train system has been dubbed the "El". This is because more of the tracks are elevated above the city. There are lines of the "El" that do travel underground. CTA transportation helps make moving around the city quick, easy, and clean.

There are a number of major highways that run through the city. Although these highways have numbers, many Chicagoans will refer to them by other names. It will be helpful to know what name is associated with which highway. The Kennedy Expressway is I-90. I-94 is knows as the Edens Expressway. The Eisenhower Expressway is actually I-290. The Stevenson Expressway is the name for I-55. The Dan Ryan Expressway is when I-90 and I-94 are merged as 90/94. Other Chicago highways are refered to by their number like I-80 and I-57.

Click on the above link for a map of Chicago.