Forward - City of Chicago

ReWInD
Transportation has always shaped Chicago and its people.
In 1795, the United States acquired land at the mouth of the Chicago River from
Native Americans to serve as a portage to move boats between the Great Lakes and
the Mississippi River watershed. From that site grew Fort Dearborn, which by 1837,
had transformed into the first incorporated city in Illinois: Chicago.
From the opening of the Illinois & Michigan Canal in 1848, through the rise of rail and
air travel, Chicago has been a critical transportation link between the eastern and
western United States. Transportation assets and infrastructure have created today’s
Chicago and will continue to shape us and the nation, in the future.
Chicago’s transportation systems move millions of people and billions of dollars of
freight annually. Chicagoans make more than 8.8 million trips a day on our roads,
rails, bridges and trails. More than 39 million visitors a year walk our sidewalks, and
drive and bike on our streets. 1
Chicago is also the heart of a $500 billion regional economy, the 4th largest in the
world. 2,3 About 4.5 million workers travel to and from jobs in the region every day
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to support the world’s 5th most important business center (just behind London,
New York, Tokyo and Singapore). 4,5 Roughly 450,000 tons of freight worth nearly
$700 billion moves into, out of and through the Chicago freight system every year,
representing one quarter of the nation’s daily freight rail traffic. The nation’s economic
growth relies on Chicago’s economic health and continued vitality. But that economy,
in turn, relies on a solid foundation of efficient and reliable transportation.
This transportation backbone is so integral to our regional life and economy that we
often only notice when this highly complex network experiences a hiccup. As Mayor
Emanuel stated in his transition report, “So effective is our transportation system