What's Underneath Chicago? Exploring (Lower) Lower Wacker Drive
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- Опубликовано: 28 июн 2024
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Beneath Chicago's urban streets live a vast network of hidden streets and thoroughfares. But not many people know what's buried deeper still.
Produced and Written by: Bethany Guerrero
Cinematography and Visual Effects by: C. Drew Unser
Special thanks to Diane Childress
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There is an even lower level. Mostly rail that was used to move coal and other materials to the buildings. I have not been down to the rail section in 50 years or so. You used to be able to see one of the rail entrances from one of the trains that entered the city. I can't remember if it was the El or one of the commuter trains. Driving lower wacker in rush hour is a real experience......
Well there is the old Navy Pier line that runs on the first lower level, which is actually natural ground level and the original first floor of most old buildings.
The Tunnels are the Tunnels, completely separate and about 40 feet below the lower level streets. They are inaccessible and largely flooded.
I drove it once, Lower Wacker. Only one day, mid-day, straight-up in the middle of weekday business hours, watching out for delivery trucks- scary!
I'm adept. I Love driving.
'Learned on the Kennedy😁
As someone who used to drive a large truck and deliver to many of the buildings downtown. Lower Wacker was very convenient for getting in and out of the docks. It really is a great concept I wish more cities would utilize. Imagine how many trucks would be clogging up the streets above if not for Lower Wacker. Looking at you NYC.
Chicago has some very forward thinking infrastructure, guess they learned hard lessons early on with sewers and water supply.
@@techman8817 It also helps when you can hit the reset button/ the city burns to the ground, and you can restart from scratch...
Lower Wacker used to be far more treacherous of a drive with pylons cutting whole lanes and the left-hand entrances with very little visibility or time to speed up to traffic. This was before the rebuilds of the whole thoroughfare, upper and lower. (Also "Emerald City" was also Lower Wacker as well as Lower-Lower.) I drove it quite a bit in my teens and twenties so I knew every bend and pylon, and it was a quick drive -- all the taxis took it when possible -- and very few "civilians." So I often brought out of towners down there to give them a good taste of the hidden part of Chicago.... My proudest moment was scaring a friend in from New York City that was very white knuckled as me and the cabs were speeding at 45-50 mph.
There is also an extensive underground pedestrian walkway system. If you know what you're doing you can live downtown and never go outside from building to building.
Wild
That exists in many cities but in many of them those tunnels are small and are only for utilities such as power lines, optic fibre cables and water mains.
They already did a video on it ruclips.net/video/K6C9dbducAw/видео.html
You should see Toronto's Path underground.
They actually did a video a few months ago on the Pedway. ruclips.net/video/K6C9dbducAw/видео.html
Some 20+ years ago I use to live in Chicago. I had a buddy rent a rental car when he came to visit me. While driving downtown we got turned around and somehow ended up in Lower Wacker. I remember it being called the Thunder Dome back then. It was kind of scary because everyone knew what they were doing except us. Horns blowing, cars speeding by while we missed our turns and had no idea where we were going. And then, as mysteriously as we got in, we got out to the surface. After it was over, we laughed about our experience. However, I'll never forget that feeling of craziness we experienced. It's truly another world than the upper streets.
One of the uses of the lower streets is to enter (hotel) parking garages. Bethany, please wear your shoulder harness correctly. I wouldn't want you to get injured in an accident.
The lowest level of Wacker Dr. is just called "Wacker Dr." Upper Wacker is the top, Lower Wacker is the middle, and Wacker is the bottom. The lowest level is accessible via East South Water Street (head west off of N Columbus just South of Lower Wacker Dr). You can also access it via N. Field Blvd. Head South from upper Randolph, around the plaza, and keep heading down
The lowest level is actually a terrific place to park if you want to go to the riverwalk or the lakefront parks south of the river. There are metered spaces along the side and cutouts in the fence where you can access the park area.
An exploration of lowest Randolph St. is also fun.
It's a real shame that Columbus and LSD are at surface level between Monroe and Roosevelt.
Driving right under St Regis hotel will give you access to the lowest level as well. Which could be field st that you are talking about.
From my college days in the 1970s, I recall that Lower Wacker Drive was also lit green.
Chicago's Basement was hilarious! BRD529 was the license plate of the blues mobile. You two rule!
Used to work downtown; drove Lower Wacker frequently as part of the job. One thing you two didn't discuss were all those wrought-iron railings. Those were installed during the early 2000s, I believe. Prior to that, the area was a haven for Chicago's homeless population--all those nooks and crannies made it possible for someone sleeping rough to have a fairly secure cardboard box with a bunch of accumulated possessions--blankets and spare clothing, mostly--inside; there was a general code that had those folks keep to themselves, not create trouble, and in exchange they were left alone.
Then along came Richard M. Daley, who really, really wanted Chicago to be neat and clean and pristine, so he ordered all those Lower Wacker condos to be taken down and tossed out by the cops, and then they built the rail fences to keep them from coming back. This was very successful, which is why in the brave new world of 2024 Chicago, you constantly run into the homeless in parks, parking lots, and other spots where they can make a pitch for some spare change.
Wow, I've visited Chicago several times and my hotels were literally blocks from there. I had no idea there about this subterranean Wacker World (so to speak). Thanks for showing me what I missed. Until next time, happy trails!
theres an entrance to the secret highway in lower lower wacker, you go right at the intersection of the impound yard and take it all the way down. on the left will be a fenced/gated tunnel that goes under millennium park all the way to McCormick place.
The McCormick Busway. It's part of the Chicago Triathlon bike course, along with an out an back on Lower Wacker.
While I lived and worked in Chicago, I often used Lower Wacker to avoid the much slower traffic above. That and the Pedway (which you featured a little while back) helped tremendously in getting around downtown. One note, had you turned left at Michigan Ave, you would have driven past the entrance to the Billy Goat Bar (think "Cheeseburger, Cheeseburger" from old Saturday Night Live shows). Once again, thank you for bringing back wonderful memories of my life in Chicago.
From Lower Lower Wacker, you can access Millennium Station, the Millennium Parking Garage, the Harris Theater for the Performing Arts, and the Bus way to McCormick Place.
Hey Drew and Bethany. Lower Wacker use to be so scary. I wonder what they did with all the homeless who use to live there. And GPS get so confused but they do have plans to fix that. Never knew there is a 3rd level. Lower Lower Wacker - No way!!!. Love all the filming location references. So stressfull driving there.
Lower Lower Wacker drive was no joke! But we felt like we needed to film there to get the full experience, haha. The top level is definitely a great way to breeze through some of the traffic. Hope you guys have a great weekend!
You do realize there is a lower lower lower lower wackier drive right? That’s four lowers in one sentence z. We talking subterranean nightmare full of half human half who know wtf. Don’t long tread cuz dayum
The homeless are still down there
As an uber driver in Chicago I had to learn this road, it was really confusing at first. I used to practice it with no one in the car. Your GPS will not work down there so you'd better know ahead of time where your exit will be. Lower Wacker also has it's own special smell. Learning lower Lower Wacker was definitely an adventure. If you're passing through town and have a little time you should check it out. And I did feel safe driving all three levels. Also, lower Lower Wacker is at the Chicago River's level.
That 'special smell' is from all the commercial kitchens preparing all types of food for the hotels, restaurants and office buildings on the upper levels. All those different food aromas mixed together makes the air smell like a high-school cafeteria.
@@paralegalstar9970 Makes sense. I didn't mean it as a bad smell, just special. Thanks for the extra info. As many times as I've driven it I never knew that.
I love the smell of lower wacker
@@paralegalstar9970smells more industrial than that to me. I don’t get the smell of foods. But I agree it does have an office building smell mixed in there too but I find it very pleasant.
Missing you both you are the best and my favorite oddity fam Happy Saturday 🫶💜
Happy Saturday, Andy-Fam! 💕
I watched this video a few weeks ago. Then, when visiting some friends in Chicago, I half-jokingly told them about lower lower wacker and that we might want to visit it xD
of course, it turns out that the parking garage we bought tickets for had its only entrance deep in the abyss, and we all got helplessly lost trying to figure out how to down there. Took me 5 attempts and over half an hour of looping around the block to get in. My friends failed to find it. Absolutely wild place.
This hurt my head.
One of you is somehow still wearing your bag over the seatbelt.
The other has it under your arm doing absolutely nothing.
"Let's go....!"
[Hop in and drive off.]
"Oh crap, we left the camera...!"
Yep! 🤣
Lower Wacker used to be called "The Emerald City" because WAAAY back when, the streetlights were green.
You did the S curve (the old S curve) on LSD into the Emerald City.
Dawsons Garage was on lower in Adventures in Babysitting 😉
next video will be about lower upper-lower mid Wacker drive...
On lower lower where you were driving was the entrance to the 9 hole golf course/driving range that was there back in the day. Early 2000
Yah I used to walk by that place all the time when Iwas working that area, remember watching them pull out most of a steam engine and a couple old rail cars when they where working the foundation for a new building in that area too.
Henry- Portrait of a Serial killer has a major scene on Lower Wacker drive
Back in the early 90s there was a car racing video game and the final level was lower wacker. That was before they rebuilt it because it used to be insane with the supports right in the middle of the lanes.
Lower Wacker and Lower Michigan Ave were lifesavers as a bike courier for efficiency and stay dry during rainy days.🚲
Respect bro🫡 I can barely drive down there while delivering
Very cool! I love huge underground spaces. And the extra level was a nice bonus. Here in stockholm we got lots of tunnels and covered roads/railroads with buildings on top and tunnels/subway stations deep underground inside the bedrock.We call stockholm the hollow city sometimes because there are layers of tunnels basically everywhere (car/train/subway/pedestrian/hidden or secret tunnels, even bunkers). There are long sections of freeways outside the city also deep down in the bedrock and they're expanding the network a lot! you can drive down there for 10 minutes at freeway speed, with multiple exit tunnels to every direction
Ooooo...The Hallow City is a GREAT name. That sounds awesome!
What fun!! Thanks for taking me along!
Another fun and amazing adventure. Always learning something watching you two, thanks. I am so glad Chi doesnt have earthquakes, thats a lot of steel and concrete above your head and must be below the water level. Have a great Weekend.
Technically the streets aren’t underground the lowest level is ground level with streets on top. So the buildings connected to the lower street levels lobbies are really on the 3rd or 4th floor.
Chicago is near a major but infrequent fault.
That is the best place to park and walk along the riverfront, or to access the architectural tour boats. And as a coach bus driver, it was also a good place to hide out with the bus while your group was off doing something like shopping or a boat trip. It also has the north access to the not-so-famous McCormick Busway, which it a direct bus route from downtown to McCormick Place. And is also a weather protected link between the Millennium Metra station, and the underground Chicago Pedestrian Walk. You will see a lot of pedestrians in that area where you initially went down the ramp when trains arrive.
I've had to pick up a vehicle at that auto pound in the 90s.
Great place to ride a Harley,they sound great down there!
So cool! Never knew there was a lower lower Wacker Drive. I guess since Chicago was always the destination , rarely used Lower Wacker so never happened upon the lower lower 😊. So glad you have branched out and are exploring all of these locations.
I once ended up down there (on foot no less) while looking for a cheeseburger (if you know you know) and I thought I had slipped into another reality. People didn't believe me for years that Lower Lower Wacker even existed, so it's nice to see it get some press.
Heyyy love your new adventures across America!! Interesting and fascinating are words I would describe! ✌🏻🫶🏻🩵🩵 Thank you
Wow, I'm so glad you explored this. Thank you! I've never been a Chicagoan but I knew about Lower Wacker Drive from Daniel Pinkwater's books (he has a fictional version called Lower North Aufzoo St) and a while ago I did some research and learned about Lower Lower Wacker. I spent a few hours trying to use Google Maps street view to explore Lower Lower Wacker but it kept popping me from Lower to Upper Wacker, and apparently Lower Lower just isn't in Street View at all. So seeing your video was amazing and awesome and all kinds of other good words. Thanks again!
You guys are great. Love it!
Thank you so much!
Thanks and underground video are my favorite!!! 👍🏿😷👍🏻🇨🇦🇵🇭🇺🇸
I was hoping you'd highlight the connection of lower lower wacker to the train line that has a side road which takes you all the way to McCormick place. Now that ride, is wild... and illegal... yet fun!
A side road that you're not supposed to drive on? Who uses it?
@noble6882 is been used by city workers, metra employees, and shuttle busses to get people from hotels downtown over to McCormick place for conferences expeditiously to prevent long travel times during peak congestion. After getting out of the lower lower Wacker area, it opens up to a side road that runs along a Metra line heading southbound.
@@briancampbell119you can’t do that anymore security gate near the Aon Center is there now. Unless you know a way to get past the gate.
Great video... I have been on a Chicago video jag recently, and this was a really cool find.
I remember driving for Uber and I would always miss the entrance to lower Wacker and the GPS would get confused and once a passenger reported me because he was late getting to the airport. Oh well.
Wow you had some beautiful weather when filming this!😊
Indeed! We couldn't believe it. Such a gorgeous city!
How did I miss that when I was there 15 years ago. Great video, thank you
It’s really easy to miss but just check the stairs on Michigan ave leading down and you can get to it.
The GPS does not work because, on the third level, you are too deep with too much concrete and steel above you for the weak GPS signals to reach. Sort of like the same reason your cell phone shows "service not available". The cell phone problem is easy to fix with repeaters on the lower level(s). I'm not sure about the GPS fix for that problem, though.
Great video!
But you’re in the car, you can take your bag off and set it in the back seat😂
Looks like some old the old emerald lights are still there at 7:47 to give us an idea of what that would've looked like
I used to work at 100 S. Wacker on the top (20th) floor and was there when they were rebuilding the north/south section in the late 2000’s. Was really cool to able to look down into lower Wacker from above.
Hello there…..Oddity Odyssey family. Drew and Bethany knocked it out the park again with this one. Great job. (Side note: I still need a tangerine bar.)
We thought YOU had all the tangerine bars?! An episode needs to be made about the hunt for a box of them.
@@OddityOdysseys I ran out.
Great video
This is a beautiful city!!!
Justo so wildly dangerous though 😢
Yall find the bestest place to explore, another great video, thank you for making my week🤪👍
Loved the episode. Keep them coming guys. come to Georgia we have all kinds of strange things. Rock Eagle, Little Grand Canyon, to mention a few.
Thanks!
You're too good to us, Jesse!! Thank you so much. 🙏😊💕
@@OddityOdysseys 😊😊Thxs
Lol "yellow lights, warning you of something" now that needs to be on a t-shirt.
Cool. Definitely lower Wacker Dr
So another great episode thanks guys........So did you move out of Cali
Nope, we're just exploring some new areas! :)
One of my teenage playgrounds from a half a century ago....
We used to have free parking near Michigan Ave on lower lower!
Ah memories. I lived nearby for 6 years and would often walk lower Wacker drive to avoid elements and tourists.
"Time to blend in with the locals"
*puts on "I love [INSERT REGION HERE] T-shirt*
Only been on that road one day and Chicago fire was driving us around to go down to Navy pier to get a ride on their helo for a view of downtown from the air during the taste of Chicago. Was a blast for sure
been there!
It's blows my mind that something this complex was engineered a century ago. It's so clever that they had the foresight to put garbage collection below street level.
Drew took that last speed bump like a *BOSS*! 🤜🏻🤛🏻
It's remarkable, really: these doofuses who design infrastructure like this--good intentions (solving congestion problems) aside--seem to forget that people would have to WORK down there (as you say: garbage collection and other 'issues', including that auto pound (6:27: for those who enjoy having to retrieve their stolen vehicle. Been there, done that, not remotely fun; and an actual 'street address at 8:00?!). A soul-destroying environment, on a par with the multi-level, subterranean 'golgothic' infrastructure that Middle East new-build 'city' ('The Line', Saudi Arabia) is proposing.
Talk about drawing a line in the sand. ⛔⛔🚫🚫
Walker is hardly primary… that maze of roads is avoided by most people I’ve hung out with
I’ve been to Chicago once and found my way down here.
Great stuff !!! I got lost down there once in a rental car hitting those bumps … knucklehead … California guy after visiting (?) Last Resort … poor rental car …
Anyway … RUclips has gotten very vanilla … your stuff is always fun !!!
Oh skys, I used to live in chicago. Heck, worked downtown even partly. Used to park in the lower lower level most times, was a good parking garage not far from the building I was working in, for like 7 bucks a day, so was pretty dang cheep. Would walk past this driving range on the way to work, as it was on lower lower randolf street I think. Would walk past the metra electic end of line station, then along michigan to the building I was working in. Well, mostly I would end up entering a building about 2 blocks over and go through the accsess area that was on the lower level. A lot of buildings where connected underground, and there used to be a lot of small shops down there. I looked at a newer map, and the golf place is gone, looks like they turned it into a park.
I went to Chicago last Summer. We booked a parking spot at a garage on Lower Wacker. We were going to the Willis Tower. Had a really hard time finding how to get there. It was raining so hard and my GPS didn't work. It sure was different down there. I would like to go back to Chicago when the weather is nice to take the Architecture boat tour.
(1) "Chicago's Basement." 😂😂😂
(2) Now I gotta go rewatch "Dark Knight"....
(3) I'm wondering if there's an even lower level beneath the lower level, like a sewer system or maintenance tunnels where some underground community of people live with their own rules and laws, like Slab City near Bombay Beach in Southern California.
(4) Very fun video, stay safe out there!
Oooooooo...Now we have to go back cause you're probably right about the underground city beneath Chicago's basement, haha! Hope you're well, our friend!
Chicago's basement for sure! Spooky, too. Glad you didn't get locked in the gated part that was not gated.....yikes!!! Brave souls!!!
Every time I speed through lower Wacker Drive at some point I say out loud “I am Batman!”
I live in Chicago. I love my hometown.❤❤
What are some of your favorite spots?
@@OddityOdysseys Navy Pier is my favorite place because it is like a theme park on the lake. I also like Wrigley Field Go Cubs! ⚾️
It’s been extensively rebuilt and reconfigured since The Blues Brothers was filmed.
I can't go down there, ever since that Walking Dude was burned. That's like going to Ground Zero.
I had never heard of this before, this is why i love the channel.
7:48 still had a emerald light
I lost $20 in lower (maybe lower lower) wacker drive because i got lost in it and ender up going down a one way the wrong way...a band of homeless people helped me find my way out and when they asked for money, out of fear, i couldn't say no, and all i had was $20 😂. It was like midday in 2016 maybe
Where are Jake and Elwood????
There is a upper and lower street in Downtown LA. I think it's 6th street. I haven't driven there since about 1989. It also has been used in a lot of movies. That might be a future episode?
Imagine if New York had streets like this. It could help the traffic situation.
Great video
They need to change to daylight lighting
Just a note, keep that shoulder belt over your shoulder, under your arm like that it will break most of your ribs in a frontal impact, not fun. Happened to a friend of mine, over your shoulder it holds your entire torso, under your arm it puts all the load on your ribs!!!
So safe you don’t really need that passenger side shoulder belt.
4:09 Chicago is like a lasagna of underground streets!
Been down there once in 2007 looking for my car. We took a wrong turn and came up on like 20 homeless guys standing around flaming barrels. It was like a scene out of mad max lol. Needless to say we got the hell out of there asap lol
this happened to me as well, trying to get home at 3am, got lost on the western dead end of lower lower wacker to lower harbor dr., the homeless squad fanned out and tried to keep me from doing a 3 point turn around. Was easily 10 years ago
The yellow lights make it look like you're in the Backrooms' parking garage.
The gal isn't worrying her shoulder belt correctly
I don't know if the still dye the river green for St. Paddy's Day, but they used to!
They still do!
I used to use Lower Wacker but everytime I use it now my GPS does not want to work. So ugh. I have to use streets unfortunately.
But seriously if you do not live in downtown Chicago you will get lost under Lower Wacker. Take the streets above.
lol y'all brave!!! yes drive off crazy save urself aha
Most major cities have underground infrastructure that is made of tunnels.
In my old state capital they had an incinerator that burned garbage and made steam.
The steam was used for heat, power, and A/C.
Tunnels ran over 300 miles under the city to provide steam to all the city buildings and state complex.
It was large enough to drive through.
DC has a MASSIVE underground complex made up of at least 4 levels.
The first sub level is for the public and the second is transportation.
Infrastructure and government passages are 3 and 4.
Below that is a COG network and M2. The COG evacuation subway is M2.
The lowest level is 160 to 200 feet below ground.
Incredibly the tunnels date back to the formation of DC
On lower lower wacker street racing had been going on long before 2010, its out of the way and there is no public to endanger so the cops mostly left us alone, then comes gen z and their obsession with filming and sharing everything and bringing as much attention to themselves as possible (loud exhaust but no performance benefit, driving like idiots, being dangerous) and the city was forced to respond by cracking down on the car meets and then putting in the speed humps and speed tables. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.
Other movies to see: Code of Silence, Running Scared, The Fugitive.
Adventures of babysitting
You missed a movie: Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer.
I thought there would be more trucks.
This is like a corny CBS show in the best way 😂❤
Lower Wacker is probably (IMO) one of the worst streets in Chicago for driving, mainly because you can't see cross traffic at most intersections until you get there. It's fine if you're approaching a red light, but if you're cruising through a green (or yellow) light it can be sketchy as people sometimes start walking across the other direction or people obviously run red lights (and yes, some will say that this is why you have insurance, etc -- yes, but I'd rather not make a claim if I don't want to). So it's a street I personally avoid (upper wacker is fine; at least I can see the general area and see if someone is about to blow a red light). I mean in some respects, Lower is faster since you're not usually dealing with a lot of pedestrians, but the trade-off is it's harder to see around the curves, etc even in broad daylight since it's basically all covered. (The other downside to lower Wacker is you may lose GPS signal which may be a problem if you're using it to guide you to a particular spot; and worse yet some GPS units / phones can't tell the difference between lower and upper Wacker).
The only things you find on lower wacker are bums and Billy goat tavern.