Encyclopedia o f Chicago
Interpretive Digital Essay : The Plan of Chicago
The Plan of Chicago
Chicago in 1909
Planning Before the Plan
Antecedents and Inspirations
The City the Planners Saw
The Plan of Chicago
The Plan Comes Together
Creating the Plan
Reading the Plan
A Living Document
Promotion
Implementation
Heritage
J. S. Wright, Survey Map of Chicago, 1834
Return to "Planning Before the Plan"

Wright's map of 1834 shows the city's familiar grid pattern, the cut in the sandbar that gave the Chicago River more direct access to Lake Michigan, Fort Dearborn just south and west of the cut (near the current Michigan Avenue Bridge), the North Side property of early Chicago settler John Kinzie, the "Public Square" that became the site for a succession of city halls (including the present one), and South Water Street (now Wacker Drive).