Ogden Avenue Once Had Four Numerical Designations. It Has Zero Today.

Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words, at least when there's four highways labeled in a single frame, and none of them exist on this road today.

Image: Chicago Transit Authority, 1930 via USEnds.com

There is a lot that's forgotten here in this 1930 image of Ogden Ave in Chicago, IL, as the photo depicts two decommissioned US Highways, 32 and 66, and two Illinois state routes that still exist, but run nowhere near Chicago today. What was once signed with 4 different numerical designations is now an unnumbered road. 

To make things even more confusing, Ogden Ave in much of the Chicago area is signed as US-34, which came a few years after this picture was taken. Today, we're going to quickly explore how each of these highways came to land on the same road, and why they no longer run on Ogden today.

Ogden Ave is currently signed as US 34 west of IL-43/Harlem Ave in Berwyn, which is where US-34 presently begins. 

Illinois Route 4 was a Chicago-St. Louis road that somewhat paralleled US-66. IL-4 is now decommissioned north of Springfield IL, as it was largely replaced by 66, and later of course Interstate 55.

Digital zoom of the above photo.

Illinois 18 originally ran between Chicago and Princeton, IL before being replaced by US-34, which has since been truncated to Berwyn, as mentioned. IL-18 now runs a completely different route in Central Illinois.

US Highway 32 was one of the original US Highways, running between Council Bluffs, IA and Chicago, IL before being completely replaced by an expanded US-6.

US Highway 66 was of course the Chicago-Los Angeles US Highway route that was replaced over time by the Interstate Highway System, namely I's-40, 44 and 55.

Also noteworthy in this image are the trolley tracks are from the defunct Chicago City Railway, and the area is now served by CTA buses.

Thanks as always for reading!

Location: Ogden Ave, Chicago, IL, USA

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