What is the "circle"?

[Avengerfire]

I usually never say the Stevenson for some reason. I have yet to use names Reagan or Jane Addams. I am not sure I ever will.

Most of the other names I use on a regular basis unless talking to someone that would get confused by the names.

[Manigault]

Well, folks versed in the interstate highway system know that routes with odd numberrs are north-south and the even-numbered ones go east-west. Except in Chicago where I-55 goes west and I-90/94 goes north-south. Go figure.

Some names should not be considered descriptive, like South Chicago Avenue, which is not Chicago ave turned south; but south Hyde Park Blvd. is H-P turned south. Western and North are just names, not identifiers of where they are, like Eastlake. My favorite, however, is South East Water St. I know where the street is but as a direction, where would that be?

[Drover]

Yeah, the redundancy of an address on South Chicago Avenue (for instance "8530 S. South Chicago Avenue") is kind of silly. So is having a street named Chicago Avenue and a street named South Chicago Avenue.

Then there's that brainiac city Decatur which has two Main Streets. And they actually intersect each other. Or Atlanta, which has approximatly 854 streets with variations on the name "Peachtree."

[Lookout Kid]

Originally Posted by Manigault

Well, folks versed in the interstate highway system know that routes with odd numberrs are north-south and the even-numbered ones go east-west. Except in Chicago where I-55 goes west and I-90/94 goes north-south. Go figure.

Yeah, the 90/94 stuff still confuses me, even though I've lived near 90 and 94 for almost my entire life. But each of them are two of the longest east/west routes in the U.S., so I guess Chicagoans are just a small part of the equation.

[prairiestate]

Originally Posted by Manigault

Well, folks versed in the interstate highway system know that routes with odd numberrs are north-south and the even-numbered ones go east-west. Except in Chicago where I-55 goes west and I-90/94 goes north-south. Go figure.

Interstate directions don't change in each city. So, I-55 connects Chicago, up north, with New Orleans, down south. Hence, it's a north-south interstate. I-94 connects Detroit, in the east, with Billings, in the west, and I-90 connects Boston, in the east, with Seattle, in the west. Therefore, they are both east-west interstates.

[aragx6]

The traffic report really was the most daunting thing about moving to Chicago. Only now do I usually know what's going on!

What's hard is that often just knowing what names correspond to what highway isn't enough.

Like when they say that the Edens is 65 minutes from Lake Cook to Kennedy junction... that really only helps you if you know where both of those points are. If you don't you have no idea how bad traffic is on that road, because those points could be 5 or 500 miles apart LOL!

[Castro Viejo]

Am I mistaken or is the 290 also sometimes referred to as the "Congress?"

[MannheimMadman]

I've heard that before. Maybe because it terminates into Congress?

[Avengerfire]

Originally Posted by ManheimMadman

I've heard that before. Maybe because it terminates into Congress?

It was called the Congress Expressway at first because it was built in the middle of Congress Street (replacing it in many places) and Zig-Zagging through it.

That is also why the part of the Blue Line that runs in the middle of it is called the Congress Branch. That line replaced the Congress EL that ran above Congress St.

[NearWestSider]

Originally Posted by Manigault

UIC, the University of Illinois at Chicago, was for years termed UICC, ie, the University of Illinois at Chicago Circle. They changed the designation because it was silly to have a college campus named after a nickname for an intersection, that nickname made up by radio traffic reporters.

Not so. UICC couldn't be UIC because the University of Illinois Medical Center Campus was in Chicago before Navy Pier. Remember, these were completely separate campuses of the U of I.

The shotgun marriage occured in 1981-82, creating the University of Illinois at Chicago we all know and love, and the first thing they did was go about getting rid of "Circle" and "Medical Center". Now its just "UIC", with the exception of U of I Hospital which ended up with the name "University of Illinois Medical Center".

The final vestiges of "Circle" and "Medical Center" were dropped in 2005, when in a fit of creative genius, the administration changed "Chicago Circle Center" and "Illini Union" (the former names for the student unions) to "Student Center East" and "Student Center West".

Despite the fact that its been 26 years, you will still occasionally hear people refer to UIC as "Circle", as well as some medical students in denial that they attend UIC.