The 606: The linear urban park won by Chicago

New York’s High Lane, an elevated rail line in disused, converted into a green corridor that meanders through Manhattan, is a striking success story of recovery of public space that is being contemplated by other cities around the world. In the same country, Chicago has reclaimed a similar abandoned train line to create a linear urban park, more than twice the length of the High Line, connecting four once physically separated communities.

The Bloomingdale Line was a train line that operated for more than 100 years in the northwestern sector of the city for the transport of cargo from the industry developed in the area, as well as for the transport of passengers. In the 1980s, traffic by other forms of transport began to fall away, and in the 1990s it was abandoned, after which the space was gradually reclaimed by vegetation. Being one of the areas of Chicago with the fewest green areas per capita in the city, the idea of ​​transforming it into a green corridor for pedestrians and cyclists began to take hold in the neighborhood organizations of the adjoining neighborhoods, diverse among themselves at a socioeconomic level, and developed a project together with the organization The Trust for Public Land, which advocates for the protection of urban green areas.

The linear park The 606, named after the numbers of the zip code shared by all the citizens of Chicago, it was inaugurated in June 2015, with a total length of 4.3 kilometers. In previous works, 37 railway bridges were remodeled, and access points and friendly connections were created with six pre-existing parks at ground level, as well as facilities along the line for other types of activities, such as wildlife observatories. park, skate ramps, art exhibits, and other amenities.