Chicago has several multilevel streets. Some of these multi level streets have three levels incusing Wacker Drive. This video start while entering lower Wacker.
This helps a lot because I’m a delivery driver and this area can be a nightmare all the towers docks are down here and your video helped me a lot thank you 🙏🏻
I knew Lower Wacker very well. But after all the new construction and work on Wacker, I was completely lost after the first 5 minutes after a 30 year absence from the city and the state.
You need to do this again when they complete tribune tower lower level. I think what they are doing there will catch on to other property owners and help transform those lower levels to draw in people. I can see stores, eventually even bars, restaurants down there and the city will also generate more revenue too.
At 0:33 you pass 233 s lower Wacker, the basement entrance to the Sears tower. I was doing ride along pickup's from there in 2013 while the tunnel was being rebuilt. I could see the sky in that spot for a while... and the rest of the tunnel was full of construction supports like a haunted forest, dust, big trucks, sand hills... with hang lights
Yeah, don't be afraid to go down there. I recommend starting with just wacker and diving all the way though. From there, most of the other streets will end in a dead end or take you out of the lower levels
@@thewanderluster470 no hate, im just being comical i was on an architectural rabbit hole and heard about this multilevel street, and your video was the first result. I also realized this is where the dark night was filmed i think. awesome stuff my friend you gained a subscriber 🤝
Did you drive in the lowest street accesible? I could of sworn there was a street with blue lights that seem to go deeper underground that you drove by.
I don't think so. I'm currently in the process of redoing this video but street by street. So I'll have a lower lower wacker video coming out soon. There's only a few triple level streets but ill try to cover all of them. If you have a time stamp, I could tell you what you saw
Fascinating video of Chicago's alluring "underworld." The only other American city I know that has an extensive system of subterranean public streets is Atlanta. Am I missing any?
Thanks so much for this fascinating tour! A lot of the roads don't seem to have much traffic. I'd love to do a bicycle ride down there. Do you have any advice for how I might plan a route, so that I get to ride through a lot of the interesting lower-level areas, but I don't run into streets with high car traffic?
Stick the area around lower Michigan and lower lower wacker. Start under St. Regis Hotel. You can access lower lower wacker from there. That would be a good starting point, just avoid lower wacker as that turns into a more highway like road west of Michigan
Yes, this was recorded at night. During the day there are areas that are open to the outside where you can see out. Surprisingly, this is actually near ground level. The city itself is raised up in this area which gives the sense that this is underground
These streets follow the same path as the surface level. For example, at the surface there is Wacker Drive, then Lower Wacker below and Lower Lower Wacker at the bottom, all stacked on top of each other. So once you learn the surface level, you can easily drive down here
There is a brief description in the video description. Im starting out driving westbound on Harrison. I make a right onto Lower Wacker. Wacker Drive is one of the few major chicago streets that isn't straight for its length. Also, its the only chicago street that has adresses with all for cardinal directions. (North wacker, East wacker etc). So once I enter Lower Wacker, I am driving northbound. Wacker eventually makes a 90° turn to the right, so i am then heading eastbound towards Lake Shore Drive/Lake Michigan. Lake shore drive is where the video ends. So in the big picture, wacker goes north and south along the south branch of the river between the main branch and Harrison, and then it is east and west along the main branch between the lake and the south branch. Hopefully, this explains it, and thanks for watching
So many questions... Is there any cell service down there? Is there a problem with crime down there? And how is there not a post-apocalyptic/car chase movie based on this place?
Yes and no for cell service. Until recently, there really wasnt any service. The city has been trying to improve that though. One reason for the improvement is people would get lost down there when their navigation would lose connection. It's not easy if you dont know the streets. Also, it is more open to the surface than it appears in the video, so there are sections where cell service comes though. There used to be a lot of drag racing down there but the city put up speed bumps and they patrol. down there. There are a ton of homelss down there. You dont really see anyone down there who isnt working or homless. Not sure if you last comment is sarcastic but the chase scene in the Dark knight was filmed down there. I also believe there is a scene from Blues Brothers down there.
@@thewanderluster470 As far as I know city installed bluetooth down there. So if you have it enabled on your phone, both Google Navigation and Waze would work
there are places to pull over. Its pretty narrow down there but city streets are narrow in general so its nothing new. If you're claustrophobic than maybe its better to drive on the surface
there are homeless camps down here. also there used to be a lot of street racing and drifting going on but the city is preventing that with speed bumps and barriers. I've been down here many times and I've never heard a gun shot but I wouldn't doubt that it happens.
