The Chicago Pedway

One aspect of Chicago that has always fascinated me is the Pedway. The Pedway is an underground walkway connecting nearly five miles of downtown Chicago. I first heard about it through a rumor that you could walk all the way from Union Station to the Leo Burnett building, which was later squashed as not true.

Although the pedway does not go that far, it's not very intuitive. Some coworkers and I have recently explored the pedway to see how far we could get without going outdoors. We made it from Block 37 (State Street & Randolph) to the Aon Center fairly simply - but always needed to ask around to continue in the right direction. Some parts were nicer than others, with various fast food, shoe shine shops and even an athletic club discovered underground.

Often when asking which way to continue in the pedway, miscellaneous kiosk owners would say, "you are already in the pedway" when it felt like we were in a building's lobby, making the path confusing. After our hour of exploring, I felt the ultimate satisfaction the following week when I entered the Illinois Center at Michigan & South Water Street to save 10 minutes in the cold on a walk to the Swissotel.

If you want a Chicago experience, or to just stay warm on some walks to lunch in the winter, check out the pedway map here and go explore.

Chicago pedway map