Underneath the Chicago Cultural Center is one of many entrances to Chicago's extensive Pedway System, a collection of above- and below-ground passageways reserved for Chicago walkers who want to avoid packed sidewalks and unpleasant weather. The pedway's tunnels run underneath the Loop's buildings and streets, adjacent to subways, and pop to the surface at the top of discreet stairways and inside building basements and lobbies.

The idea for a pedway in Chicago emerged as early as 1897, when architect Louis Sullivan designed a bridge that would carry pedestrians from the Loop elevated train to the department store at 1 South State Street. The pedway as it exists today began to take form in 1951, when the City of Chicago constructed underground pedestrian tunnels connecting the Red and Blue subway lines at Washington and at Jackson. Public and private expansions to the pedway system have happened gradually since, sometimes through new construction and sometimes through the conversion of existing tunnels.

Pedway explorers will find shops, food purveyors, bars, barbers, shoe shiners, musicians, and a host of other services throughout the pedway system, as well as access to fifty buildings spanning over forty city blocks.

Less visible to pedway adventurers are the miles of other tunnels running adjacent to and below the pedway passageways. CTA tunnels, closed-off freight and cable car tunnels, water intake tunnels, and the much-deeper (350 feet below the surface) and aptly named Deep Tunnel cut through Chicago's bedrock. This subterranean infrastructure supports Chicago's vital water and transportation systems-- services that hundreds of thousands of people rely on every day.

Please note: you may not be able to connect your mobile device to the Internet while in the Pedway.

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