Northlake on my mind
I used to live/work in Northlake IL. Recently I took a "drive" around Northlake using Google. It's been over 30 years since I've physically been in Northlake so allow me a little curiosity :) As far as I know the town was named Northlake because two main arterial roads, Lake Street and North Avenue cross at the western boundary of Cook County / Northlake - in other words a very practical place not fancy. Suburb names in Chicagoland could be weird though, there is one called Oakbrook which had a big mall / shopping center, and then next to it is Oakbrook Terrace, maybe not quite as upscale but again, practical :)
I actually had been looking for a building to the east on North Avenue that had an old Zenith plant:
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| next suburb east of Northlake is Melrose Park, IL |
They made picture tubes there but of course picture tubes and Zenith have not prospered over the last 30 years. One of the engineers at GTE used to work at this Zenith Rauland plant. He said the picture tubes moved on some kind of hook conveyor and made quite a bit of noise if they fell and hit the floor. I remember being very impressed in the 1990s with a Zenith computer monitor that had a truly flat picture tube - too little, too late for Zenith:
Then I turned around and went west on North Avenue until I saw this:
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| note the new concrete supports with the old wooden supports to the west |
and this:
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| note the rusty bridge and wooden bridge supports |
These are railroad bridges over North Avenue going from "the hump" rail yard to the south to another rail yard and various factory / warehouse sites to the north (including a spur to GTE where I used to work).
Anyway the thing that struck me is that finally, roughly 45 years after I started working there, the old bridges with their somewhat "iffy" looking wooden supports are being rebuilt with concrete/steel supports !
Continuing along west we see the former Northlake Hotel to the south:
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| the tallest building in the area |
After passing under the Tri-state tollway and Eisenhower expressway (are they still called by those names ?) we get to what used to be known as "the jug handle":
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| I would turn in here, hang a left on Berteau, then turn left at the light to go east on North Avenue |
It was a little diversion (via Berteau) through a local neighborhood in Elmhurst that let a driver reverse direction (to go back east) on North avenue. Here is the map of the area:
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| When a tollway, a freeway and two arterial streets meet, there is messiness |
I always had to go this way after coming back to Northlake from Wisconsin on the tollway. But apparently this has been fixed because "the jug handle" has been closed off !
Also, it was really hard to ride a bicycle west out of Cook into Dupage county. There were two close by routes: Grand Avenue and North Avenue. I would often ride south through the rail yard (not exactly safe) and take St. Charles road (more sedate) west. Every single way was kinda dangerous.
Will wonders never cease ? New bridges AND eliminated jug handles ! :)
Best Regards,
Chuck, WB9KZY
http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm
