Illinois Route 21 (IL 21) is an arterial north–south state highway in northeastern

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...

. It runs from

Illinois Route 43 Illinois Route 43 (IL 43) is a major north–south state highway in the U.S. state of Illinois. It runs from U.S. Route 30 (US 30) in Frankfort north to the large intersection of IL 120 (Belvidere Road) and US 41 (Skokie Highway) in ...

(Harlem Avenue) in Niles to U.S. Route 41 (Skokie Highway) north of Gurnee. Illinois 21 is 28.13 miles (45.27 km) long.Illinois Technology Transfer Center
T2 GIS Data
Retrieved April 7, 2006. As documented in Wikipedia:WikiProject U.S. Roads/Lengths/Illinois. Along most of its length, Illinois 21 is called Milwaukee Avenue. North of Gurnee, it is called Riverside Drive.

Route description

Illinois 21 was the principal route to

Milwaukee, Wisconsin Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at th ...

before the construction of both the Skokie Highway and the

Tri-State Tollway The Tri-State Tollway is a toll highway in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of Illinois. It follows: *Interstate 80 from I-94/I-294/IL 394 in South Holland to I-294 in Hazel Crest; *Interstate 294 from I-80/I-94/IL 394 in South Holl ...

( Interstate 94 and Interstate 294). The towns of Glenview, Libertyville, and Gurnee are principally located along this road. It follows the

Des Plaines River The Des Plaines River () is a river that flows southward for U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed May 13, 2011 through southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois''American Her ...

for its entire length, and

overlap Overlap may refer to: * In set theory, an overlap of elements shared between sets is called an intersection, as in a Venn diagram. * In music theory, overlap is a synonym for reinterpretation of a chord at the boundary of two musical phrases * O ...

U.S. Route 45 U.S. Route 45 (US 45) is a major north-south United States highway and a border-to-border route, from Lake Superior to the Gulf of Mexico. A sign at the highway's northern terminus notes the total distance as . US 45 is notable for incorporatin ...

between

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-we ...

and Prospect Heights. South of Illinois 43, Milwaukee Avenue remains a major arterial road until it reaches the downtown area of Chicago, where its historical terminus at Lake Street has been moved back to Grand Avenue. It is one of the few diagonal streets in the grid street layout of Chicago.

History

SBI Route 21 ran from Chicago to

Antioch Antioch on the Orontes (; grc-gre, Ἀντιόχεια ἡ ἐπὶ Ὀρόντου, ''Antiókheia hē epì Oróntou'', Learned ; also Syrian Antioch) grc-koi, Ἀντιόχεια ἡ ἐπὶ Ὀρόντου; or Ἀντιόχεια ἡ ἐπ� ...

along Milwaukee Avenue and current Illinois Routes 43, 83 and

137 137 may refer to: *137 (number) 137 (one hundred ndthirty-seven) is the natural number following 136 and preceding 138. In mathematics 137 is: * the 33rd prime number; the next is 139, with which it comprises a twin prime, and thus 137 is ...

. In Chicago, it also ran along

Elston Avenue Elston Avenue is a street in the city of Chicago, serving as an alternate route along the east side of the Kennedy Expressway (Interstates 90 and 94). It begins at Milwaukee Avenue, just north of Chicago Avenue. It travels northwest for almo ...

. In 1940, the route was moved to a new route to Grayslake, and then continued to Antioch. In 1963, Illinois 21 was dropped entirely from Grayslake to Antioch, and in 1972, it was shortened further to its current southern terminus at Illinois 43. The next year, Illinois 21 was rerouted to Gurnee. Illinois 83 and 137 replaced the old Route 21 to (and through) Grayslake.

Major intersections

References

External links

{{Attached KML, display=inline,title
Illinois Highway Ends: Illinois Route 21

021 021 is: * in Brazil, the telephone area code for the city of Rio de Janeiro and surrounding cities (Greater Rio de Janeiro) * in China, the telephone area code for the city of Shanghai. * in Indonesia, the area code for the city of Jakarta ...

Transportation in Cook County, Illinois Transportation in Lake County, Illinois