Chicago 'L' in the context of "South Loop, Chicago"

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⭐ Core Definition: Chicago 'L'

The Chicago "L" (short for "elevated") is the rapid transit system serving the city of Chicago and some of its surrounding suburbs in the U.S. state of Illinois. Operated by the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), it is the fourth-largest rapid transit system in the United States in terms of total route length, at 102.8 miles (165.4 km) long as of 2014, and the third-busiest rapid transit system in the United States after the New York City Subway and the Washington Metro. As of January 2024, the "L" had 1,480 rail cars operating across eight different routes on 224.1 miles of track. CTA trains make about 1,888 trips each day servicing 146 train stations. In 2024, the system had 127,463,400 rides, or about 454,300 per weekday in the third quarter of 2025.

The "L" provides 24-hour service on the Red and Blue Lines, making Chicago, New York City, and Copenhagen the only three cities in the world to offer 24-hour train service on some of their lines throughout their respective city limits. The oldest sections of the Chicago "L" started operations in 1892, making it the second-oldest rapid transit system in the Americas, after New York City's elevated lines. The "L" gained its name from "el" because large parts of the system run on elevated track. Portions of the network are in subway tunnels, at grade level, or in open cuts.

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In this Dossier

Chicago 'L' in the context of Chicago Loop

The Loop is Chicago's central business district and one of the city's 77 municipally recognized community areas. Located at the center of downtown Chicago on the shores of Lake Michigan, it is the second-largest business district in North America, after Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It contains the world headquarters and regional offices of several global and national businesses, retail establishments, restaurants, hotels, museums, theaters, and libraries—as well as many of Chicago's most famous attractions. The district also hosts Chicago's City Hall, the seat of Cook County, offices of the state of Illinois, United States federal offices, and several foreign consulates. The intersection of State Street and Madison Street in the Loop is the origin point for the address system on Chicago's street grid, a grid system that has been adopted by numerous cities worldwide.

The Loop's definition and perceived boundaries have evolved over time. Since the 1920s, the area bounded by the Chicago River to the west and north, Lake Michigan to the east, and Roosevelt Road to the south has been called the Loop. It took its name from a somewhat smaller area, the 35 city blocks bounded on the north by Lake Street, on the west by Wells Street, on the south by Van Buren Street, and on the east by Wabash Avenue—the Union Loop formed by the 'L' in the late 1800s. Similarly, the "South Loop" and the "West Loop" historically referred to areas within the Loop proper, but in the 21st century began to refer to the entire Near South and much of the Near West Sides of the city, respectively.

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Chicago 'L' in the context of Hard infrastructure

Hard infrastructure, also known as tangible or built infrastructure, is the physical infrastructure of roads, bridges, tunnels, railways, airports, ports, and harbors, among others, as opposed to the soft infrastructure or "intangible infrastructure of human capital in the form of education, research, health and social services and "institutional infrastructure" in the form of legal, economic and social systems.

This article delineates both the capital goods, or fixed assets, and the control systems, software required to operate, manage and monitor the systems, as well as any accessory buildings - such as airports, plants, or vehicles that are an essential part of the system. Also included are fleets of vehicles operating according to schedules such as public transit buses and garbage collection, as well as basic energy or communications facilities that are not usually part of a physical network, such as oil refineries, radio, and television broadcasting facilities.

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Chicago 'L' in the context of Urban rail transit

Urban rail transit is a wide term for various types of local rail systems providing passenger service within and around urban or suburban areas. The set of urban rail systems can be roughly subdivided into the following categories, which sometimes overlap because some systems or lines have aspects of multiple types.

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Chicago 'L' in the context of Chase Tower (Chicago)

Chase Tower is a 60-story skyscraper in The Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois, United States.

Completed in 1969, it is located at 10 South Dearborn Street. At 850 feet (259 m) tall, it is the fourteenth-tallest building in Chicago and the tallest building inside the Chicago 'L' Loop elevated tracks, and, as of May 2022, the 66th-tallest in the United States. JPMorgan Chase has its U.S. and Canada commercial and retail banking headquarters here. The building is also the headquarters of Exelon.The building and its plaza (known as Exelon Plaza) occupy the entire block bounded by Clark, Dearborn, Madison, and Monroe streets.

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Chicago 'L' in the context of Junction (traffic)

A junction, when discussed in the context of transport, is a location where traffic can change between different routes, directions, or sometimes modes, of travel.

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Chicago 'L' in the context of Junction (rail)

A junction, in the context of rail transport, is a place at which two or more rail routes converge or diverge. The physical connection between the tracks of the two routes (assuming they are of the same gauge) is provided by turnouts (US: switches) and signalling.

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