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Wacker Drive
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Wacker Drive |
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| Length: | 2.2 mi[1] (3.5 km) |
|---|---|
| Formed: | 1926 |
| Direction: | North-South and East-West |
| From: | Upper Wacker: Franklin Street / Harrison Street intersection (360 west at 424 south) Lower Wacker: Congress Parkway near Wells Street (220 west at 400 south) |
| To: |  U.S. Route 41 (Lake Shore Drive) (340 north at 400 east) |
| Major cities: | Chicago |
Wacker Drive is a major street in Chicago, Illinois, United States, running along the south side of the main branch and the east side of the south branch of the Chicago River. The street is a multilevel street that runs from 340 north at 400 east to 200 north at 340 west and along 360 west from 188 north to 424 south in the Chicago street address system in the Loop community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States.[2] The vast majority of it is double-decked; the upper level intended for local traffic, and the lower level for through-traffic and trucks servicing buildings on the road (and originally a dock). It is sometimes cited as a precursor to the modern freeway, though when built the idea was that pleasure vehicles would use the upper level. It is one of a few streets in the city that has addresses on all four cardinal directions.
The upper level is normally known as Upper Wacker Drive and the lower level is Lower Wacker Drive. A short part has a third level, sometimes called Lower Lower Wacker Drive, Sub-Lower Wacker Drive, Wacker Drive, Service Level, Lowest Wackest or Bottom Wacker. Near the eastern end of the road, other two and three level streets connect to Wacker Drive.
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In 1909, architects Daniel Burnham and Edward Bennett drew up a plan to improve traffic flow in Chicago, and presented it to the Commercial Club of Chicago. The major part was a double-decked roadway along the river. Charles H. Wacker, chairman of the Chicago Plan Commission, pushed the idea. Relieving the congestion at Wacker Drive and Rush Street where 50% of the city's north-south traffic crossed the Chicago River was a major part of the plan.
The original double-decker road was completed in 1926 at a cost of $8 million, and named after Wacker. The 1926 section stretched from Lake Street to Michigan Avenue, the latter of which was also rebuilt into a two-level road.
An extension south to Congress Parkway and Harrison Street was built between 1948 and 1954, replacing Market Street (after the Market Stub of the elevated Lake Street Line was removed[1]); extensions east were built in 1963 and 1975, with the latter taking it to Lake Shore Drive, and a new lower level starting at Stetson Avenue. At the time, Lake Shore Drive had an S-curve at the river, running where Wacker now does between Field Boulevard and current Lake Shore Drive. This S-curve was on a viaduct over the Illinois Central Railroad's rail yard, and was at the level of Upper Wacker; the middle and lower levels dead-ended at that point. The current alignment of Lake Shore Drive was finished in 1986, and in 1987 Middle Wacker was extended to meet the new alignment. The ramps to bring upper traffic down had already been built; upper has been dead-ended where it used to end at Lake Shore Drive.
Wacker is the only street to cross both State Street (the east-west center line) and Madison Avenue (the north-south center line).
- Wacker Drive had a "cameo" credit in the 1980 film, The Blues Brothers. The climactic high-speed chase scene occurs along various downtown streets (filmed on Sundays with the downtown cordoned off). When the brothers take the Bluesmobile down to the express level, Elwood mentions the street by name: "Well, this is definitely Lower Wacker Drive. If my estimations are correct, we should be very close to the Honorable Richard J. Daley Plaza." Jake: "That's where they've got that Picasso." Elwood: "Yep."
- Wacker Drive was also featured in the Batmobile chase scene in the movie Batman Begins.
- In the movie Call Northside 777, scenes are set in a tower on Wacker Drive looking toward the Merchandise Mart.
The following streets intersect Wacker Drive, from south to north and west to east. Most upper-level streets that end at Wacker Drive, with only right turns allowed, are not included.
- Harrison Street at Franklin Street (one-way northbound) - beginning of Wacker Drive, before it splits into two levels; traffic from Harrison Street to the upper level must use Franklin Street to Congress Parkway
- Congress Parkway - ramps connect to both levels and from the lower level; a one-way westbound ramp connects Franklin Street to Upper Wacker
- Van Buren Street (one-way westbound) - upper
- Jackson Boulevard (one-way eastbound) - upper
- Adams Street (one-way westbound) - upper
- Monroe Street (one-way eastbound) - upper
- Madison Street (one-way westbound) - upper
- Washington Street (one-way eastbound) - upper
- Randolph Street (one-way westbound) - upper
- Lake Street (one-way eastbound to east) - upper
- Franklin Street (one-way northbound) - upper
- Post Place (only goes south) - lower
- Wells Street (one-way southbound) - upper
- LaSalle Street - upper
- Clark Street (one-way southbound) - upper
- Garvey Court (only goes south) - lower
- Dearborn Street (one-way northbound) - upper
- State Street - upper
- Wacker Place (one-way eastbound) - splits from eastbound lower and upper levels
- Wabash Avenue - upper
- Michigan Avenue - double-decker
- Beaubien Court - (only goes south) - lower
- Stetson Avenue (only goes south) - triple-decker (service level begins here)
- Columbus Drive - triple-decker to the south, lower to the north
- Field Boulevard (not built yet) - upper and service (which end here)
- Lake Shore Drive - lower
- ^ Google Maps estimate.
- ^ Hayner, Don and Tom McNamee, Streetwise Chicago, "Wacker Drive", p. 129., Loyola University Press, 1988, ISBN 0-8294-0597-6
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