Bloomingdale Trail, the 606, Chicago 2015-33

2017-06-03 7356x4904 chicago bloomingdale trail

The Bloomingdale Trail is a elevated

rail trail A rail trail is a shared-use path on railway right of way. Rail trails are typically constructed after a railway has been abandoned and the track has been removed, but may also share the right of way with active railways, light rail, or streetcar ...

linear park A linear park is a type of park that is significantly longer than it is wide. These linear parks are strips of public land running along canals, rivers, streams, defensive walls, electrical lines, or highways and shorelines. Examples of linear p ...

running east–west on the northwest side of

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. It is the longest greenway project of a former elevated rail line in the

Western Hemisphere The Western Hemisphere is the half of the planet Earth that lies west of the prime meridian (which crosses Greenwich, London, United Kingdom) and east of the antimeridian. The other half is called the Eastern Hemisphere. Politically, the term We ...

, and the second longest in the world, after the Promenade plantee linear park in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. In 2015, the City of Chicago converted the former Bloomingdale railway line to an elevated greenway, which forms the backbone of the 606 trail network. The Bloomingdale Trail

elevated park An elevated park (sometimes known as a sky park) refers to a park located above the normal ground (street) level. This type of a park has become more popular in the early 21st century, featuring in a number of urban renewal projects. While usually ...

is in the

Logan Square Logan Square may refer to: * Logan Square, Chicago, a neighborhood on the north side of the city * Logan Circle (Philadelphia) or Logan Square, a park in Philadelphia **Logan Square, Philadelphia Logan Square is a neighborhood in Philadelphia. Bou ...

, Humboldt Park, and West Town neighborhoods.

History

The Bloomingdale Line was constructed in 1873 by the Chicago & Pacific Railroad Company as part of the Elgin subdivision from Halsted Street in Chicago to the suburb of

Elgin, Illinois Elgin ( ) is a city in Cook and Kane counties in the northern part of the U.S. state of Illinois. Elgin is located northwest of Chicago, along the Fox River. As of the 2020 Census, the city had a population of 114,797, the seventh-large ...

. It was soon absorbed by the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railway (also known as the Milwaukee Road), first via a 999-year lease in 1880 and later with a fee simple deed conveyance to the same in 1900. As a result of mergers and acquisitions, it became part of the

Soo Line Railroad The Soo Line Railroad is the primary United States railroad subsidiary of the Canadian Pacific Railway , one of seven U.S. Class I railroads, controlled through the Soo Line Corporation. Although it is named for the Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sa ...

(a subsidiary of the

Canadian Pacific Railway The Canadian Pacific Railway (french: Chemin de fer Canadien Pacifique) , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadi ...

P, which owned the corridor. The City of Chicago purchased the property right-of-way from CP in January 2013. The rail line was elevated approximately twenty feet in the 1910s as result of a city ordinance aimed at reducing pedestrian fatalities at grade crossings. The line had been a

street-running A street running train is a train which runs on a track built on public streets. The rails are embedded in the roadway, and the train shares the street with other users, such as pedestrians, cars and cyclists, thus often being referred to as ru ...

railway within Bloomingdale Avenue, an east–west street running at 1800 north; creating the embankment reduced Bloomingdale Avenue's width in some cases, rendering it an alleyway in some portions. Steel-reinforced concrete embankment walls line the corridor, with 38 viaducts built. The railway was used for both passenger and freight trains and served several local industrial businesses, including a

Schwinn Bicycle Company The Schwinn Bicycle Company is an American company that develops, manufactures and markets bicycles under the eponymous brand name. The company was originally founded by Ignaz Schwinn (1860–1948) in Chicago in 1895. It became the dominant manuf ...

warehouse. The Bloomingdale Line was primarily used to reach the Lakewood Branch and industrial district on Goose Island. The last freight train operated over the line in 2001. The Bloomingdale Avenue embankment continues west of the trail terminus at Ridgeway Avenue, where it intersects with

Metra Metra is the commuter rail system in the Chicago metropolitan area serving the city of Chicago and its surrounding suburbs via the Union Pacific Railroad, BNSF Railway, and other railroads. The system operates 242 stations on 11 rail lines. I ...

's commuter tracks of the

Milwaukee Road The Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (CMStP&P), often referred to as the "Milwaukee Road" , was a Class I railroad that operated in the Midwestern United States, Midwest and Pacific Northwest, Northwest of the United States fr ...

, with northbound North Line trains continuing toward Fox Lake, using the CP C&M Subdivision and

West Line West Line or Westline may refer to: * West Line, Chennai Suburban, a railway line in India * West Line, Missouri, a village in Cass County, USA * West Line (C-Train), a railway line in Calgary, Alberta, Canada * West Line Historic District (Austin, ...

trains running along the Bloomingdale tracks west to Elgin via the CP Elgin Subdivision. The tracks lower to surface-level on the western outskirts of the city.

Construction

Bloomingdale Trail Sign in Chicago 2015-51

The City of Chicago first investigated converting the Bloomingdale Line into a greenway in 1997, but the railway was still in active use. The city and community reintroduced the greenway concept as part of the Logan Square Open Space Plan in 2002–2004." This plan proposed a linear park or greenway with several public access ramps. At the east end, a trailhead would be created at the

Chicago River The Chicago River is a system of rivers and canals with a combined length of that runs through the city of Chicago, including its center (the Chicago Loop). Though not especially long, the river is notable because it is one of the reasons for ...

. A grassroots, non-profit organization, Friends of the Bloomingdale Trail (FBT), was formed in 2003 to be the focal point for advocacy and community involvement in the conversion project. FBT has partnered with the City and

The Trust for Public Land The Trust for Public Land is a U.S. nonprofit organization with a mission to "create parks and protect land for people, ensuring healthy, livable communities for generations to come". Since its founding in 1972, the Trust for Public Land has compl ...

, a national non-profit land conservation group, in a collaboration that will lead the project management, design, and development. Collins Engineers, Inc. was selected to provide Phase II design. A groundbreaking ceremony occurred on August 27, 2013, at what would become the Milwaukee Avenue / Leavitt Street connection to the trail. The corridor is the backbone of the 606 parks and trail network. The numeric name is an homage to the city's ZIP Codes, the prefix for nearly all of which is 606. The trail runs from Ashland Avenue west to North Ridgeway Avenue, parallel to West Bloomingdale Avenue. In November 2013, the Alphawood Foundation offered a $2 million grant to finance the project. The park officially opened on June 6, 2015. There have been various proposals to connect the trail to the former A. Finkl & Sons Steel property, a 22-acre site in Lincoln Park.

History

Construction

See also

References

External links