Chicago, Illinois, America’s crossroads, the nations’s transportation hub — where all modes of travel and freight movement intersect. Five federal highways and six of America’s major railroads pass through Chicago. Chicago’s airports have been critical to the global aviation system since the dawn of flight. And, well before trucks, trains, jets and planes moved people and freight, Chicago’s port facilities played a central role in America’s transportation system.
Today, the Port of Chicago remains the link between the inland-river system, the Great Lakes and the global marketplace. From Chicago, deep-draft commercial ships can reach the Atlantic Ocean through the St. Lawrence Seaway while barge traffic can reach the Gulf of Mexico through the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers.
“Salties”, lakers, and barges are equally at home in Chicago’s port facilities. Chicago’s diverse, vibrant economy, with more than a dozen industry sectors employing over 100,000 people, is directly tied to its central location and transportation infrastructure, including its port facilities. As the leading “general cargo” port on the Great Lakes, the Port of Chicago moves over 26 million tons of natural resources and other goods produced throughout the Midwest and the world annually, generating directly or indirectly thousands of jobs.
The Port’s direct access to the Chicago Rail Link, Elgin, Joliet,Eastern, Norfolk Southern, Chicago SouthShore and South Bend Railroads as well as to Interstates 90, 94, 80 and 57, make it a major intermodal nexus. The Port also benefits from the proactive leadership of Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley and Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich whose ongoing infrastructure investments assure Chicago’s continuing role as the nation’s transportation hub.
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