Chicago's Kennedy Expressway turns 50

[Brandon]

After 50 years, Kennedy opening recalled with fondness, fear

It was at 11 a.m. on Nov. 5, 1960, beneath a bunting-draped Lake Street overpass, that Illinois' political powerhouses, Gov. William Stratton, Mayor Richard J. Daley and Cook County Board President Dan Ryan, officially opened the Northwest Expressway.

Although it followed by only weeks the completion of the Congress Street Expressway, now the Eisenhower, Stratton called it "the greatest highway in America."

[ShawnP]

Thanks for the link...............interesting pics and the thing about the Catholic Church was very interesting. My ex mother in law went to church there for many a year.

[J N Winkler]

It was built by the Cook County Highway Department and not the Illinois Department of Highways, wasn't it?

[Brandon]

It was built by the Cook County Highway Department and not the Illinois Department of Highways, wasn't it?

Yes, as were most of the expressways in Chicago.  The Drive and Skyway were built by the city.  IDOH's biggest claim to Chicagoland expressway fame in the early days was the freewayization of US-66 from Gardner to Indian Head Park (built 1956).