I'm wondering if I somehow ended up on lower lower wacker drive the first time I ever drove into Chicago. I was 21 and had no idea where I was going. I'd gone many times with my paren't but I never really payed attention to my surroundings while we drove through. When I was driving, GPS took me UNDERGROUND then promptly stopped working. That was so scary. I ended up driving around in circles and found myself in a random parking lot underground. A homeless person offered us directions in exchange for money. That was wild.
Walking down there isn’t the funnest but I’ve done it a few times to escape the rain. Regular lower wacker gets dangerous at a few points because of cars but lower lower is a total graveyard. I always call it “the basement of the loop”
when people talk about this being Chicagos homeless shelter, I'm guessing theyve never been to Skidrow or Kensington Avenue. this is so clean i can eat off of it! (actually no. but its clean for an underground street in a dense urban big city)
Agreed, the homeless problem here is nowhere near what it is in CA or Philly. With that said, they really improved this area in recent years. The city kicked out many of the homeless and constructed speed bumps and curbs to deter street racing. Some expensive residential high rises were built above, and I think thats was caused the changes. There used to be a lot more homeless down there. More videos on this area to come. Thanks for watching!
That’s because it’s so low key not even a lot of chicagoans know about it. Unless your work or live in the buildings above the underground streets you probably don’t know about them. So it’s able to stay pretty clean.
@@thewanderluster470 Okay, I think I've figured out why this is confusing. You're starting out at what appears to be Field Street - a single block long kind of driveway, now, really - facing north just north of Water Street going under the St. Regis Hotel. Really, this just connects Wacker and Lakeshore East Park. The firt intersection you reach is Field at the Lower-Lower Wacker, and then you head west. I think what makes this hard to understand and visualize from going through this on streetview is that east of Michigan Avenue all the streets save Water Street appear to ramp up to a level that looks to be about half-a-level higher than the "old" upper level.
@@nomdeplume8355 that's because most of the streets east of Michigan are tri-level. the ramps are up to the lower level. When I entered Wacker, I entered lower-lower-Wacker. You can see lower-Wacker on the left of the screen. The ceiling above that is the underside of Wacker, the surface level street. you can see 3 levels while on lower-lower-Randolph as well.
@@thewanderluster470right. Was just trying to explain that this "lower-lower" level is naturally not a full level lower. It's maybe just a half-level lower than the "lower" level west of Michigan.
Field>
WB Wacker>
SB Columbus>
WB Randolph>
*U-turn*
EB Randolph>
Harbor>
*U-turn*
SB Harbor>
WB Randolph>
NB Columbus>
WB Water>
Michigan /fin
Damn, thanks for this!
I'm wondering if I somehow ended up on lower lower wacker drive the first time I ever drove into Chicago. I was 21 and had no idea where I was going. I'd gone many times with my paren't but I never really payed attention to my surroundings while we drove through. When I was driving, GPS took me UNDERGROUND then promptly stopped working. That was so scary. I ended up driving around in circles and found myself in a random parking lot underground. A homeless person offered us directions in exchange for money. That was wild.
nice! you must watch it's history too 😁
it's almost as if the entire loop area is one big building.
Yeah, I am considering making an informative video of the multilevel streets. Maybe a walking tour as well. Thanks for watching!
Walking down there isn’t the funnest but I’ve done it a few times to escape the rain. Regular lower wacker gets dangerous at a few points because of cars but lower lower is a total graveyard. I always call it “the basement of the loop”
when people talk about this being Chicagos homeless shelter, I'm guessing theyve never been to Skidrow or Kensington Avenue. this is so clean i can eat off of it! (actually no. but its clean for an underground street in a dense urban big city)
Agreed, the homeless problem here is nowhere near what it is in CA or Philly. With that said, they really improved this area in recent years. The city kicked out many of the homeless and constructed speed bumps and curbs to deter street racing. Some expensive residential high rises were built above, and I think thats was caused the changes. There used to be a lot more homeless down there. More videos on this area to come. Thanks for watching!
That’s because it’s so low key not even a lot of chicagoans know about it. Unless your work or live in the buildings above the underground streets you probably don’t know about them. So it’s able to stay pretty clean.
this is so cool !!!
where did you enter at the beginning of the video ?
East South Water Street, but there are many other ways in
@@thewanderluster470 Okay, I think I've figured out why this is confusing. You're starting out at what appears to be Field Street - a single block long kind of driveway, now, really - facing north just north of Water Street going under the St. Regis Hotel. Really, this just connects Wacker and Lakeshore East Park. The firt intersection you reach is Field at the Lower-Lower Wacker, and then you head west.
I think what makes this hard to understand and visualize from going through this on streetview is that east of Michigan Avenue all the streets save Water Street appear to ramp up to a level that looks to be about half-a-level higher than the "old" upper level.
@@nomdeplume8355 that's because most of the streets east of Michigan are tri-level. the ramps are up to the lower level. When I entered Wacker, I entered lower-lower-Wacker. You can see lower-Wacker on the left of the screen. The ceiling above that is the underside of Wacker, the surface level street. you can see 3 levels while on lower-lower-Randolph as well.
@@thewanderluster470right. Was just trying to explain that this "lower-lower" level is naturally not a full level lower. It's maybe just a half-level lower than the "lower" level west of Michigan.
Backrooms, the Wacker Rooms.
“Wacker rooms” sounds like a euphemism for my teenage bedroom.