MARIA IRIAS
In all, there are 38 bridges and viaducts connecting different sections of The 606. Repurposed from the old Bloomingdale Line, the massive steel arches over the bridge at Milwaukee and Leavitt weigh 55,000 pounds and are 35 feet tall—impos- sible to miss, even from the road below. Near the Western Avenue access ramp,
the trail passes underneath the El tracks. When a Blue Line train approaches from the northwest, you can hear it coming well be- fore it’s in sight. As we chat with Maria Irias, her curious 18-month-old daughter, Kate, keeps spinning around to find where the noise is coming from.
(WITH DAUGHTER, KATE)
“My husband and son are riding their bikes somewhere way ahead of us. My husband is an ironworker: we used to live in Houston, but he was transferred to Chicago to build skyscrapers downtown. My son is 14. He likes to ride off by himself sometimes—he’s at that age where he wants to be independent. We love being out here on the
trail. We live nearby, in Belmont Cragin, and we try to come every other day. It’s so family-friendly, and we can easily walk or run the whole trail. It’s friendly up here in general— we say hi to other families. It feels like one big community.”
W 36 · LAND&PEOPLE · FALL/WINTER 2015
WINNEBAGO AVE. INTERSECTION E
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68