page_title: West Side, Chicago
section_title: Transportation
hierarchical_section_title: West Side, Chicago / Transportation
caption_attribution_description: Pulaski CTA Blue Line 530 South Pulaski Road, Chicago, Illinois 60612
context_page_description: The West Side is one of the three major sections of the city of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, along with the North Side and the South Side. The West Side consists of communities that are of historical, cultural, and ideological importance to the history and development of Chicago. On the flag of Chicago, the West Side is represented by the central white stripe.
  The West Side has gone through many transitions in its ethnic and socioeconomic makeup due to its historic role as a gateway for immigrants and migrants as well as its role for funneling poorer residents away from the wealthier lakeside neighborhoods and central business district. Today, the West Side consists of large communities of widely middle class, working class, low-income, and poverty-stricken African American, Puerto Rican, and Mexican residents; some small communities of blue-collar, lower middle class and middle class white residents of historically Polish, Italian, Czech, and Greek, descent; and newer communities of middle-class and upper-middle class white residents created by gentrification.
context_section_description: Due to its proximity to the downtown area, the West Side has extensive mass transit as well as highways and roads. The main highway running through the area is the Eisenhower Expressway, the name for Interstate 290 within Chicago. The Stevenson Expressway runs just south of Pilsen and Little Village giving residents access to the Southwest Side and Midway Airport.
  The West Side is linked to the rest of the city by several Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) bus and train lines, as well as Metra train lines. The West Side is served by the Blue, Green and Pink lines and the BNSF Railway and the Union Pacific / West Line Metra lines. Union Station, the main railroad terminal of both Metra and Amtrak trains is located just west of the Chicago River and downtown. To the north of Union Station is the smaller Ogilvie Transportation Center that serves three Metra lines.
  Major thoroughfares on the West Side include Grand Avenue, North Avenue, Division Street, Chicago Avenue, Madison Street, Jackson Boulevard, Roosevelt Road, Blue Island Avenue, 16th Street, 18th Street, Ogden Avenue, Cermak Road, and 26th Street. Major roads that run north-south that go to other parts of the city include Halsted Street, Racine Avenue, Ashland Avenue, Damen Avenue, Western Avenue, California Avenue, Kedzie Avenue, Homan Avenue, Central Park Avenue, Pulaski Road, Cicero Avenue, Laramie Avenue, Central Avenue, and Austin Boulevard.
caption: The Pulaski Blue Line station in West Garfield Park on the median of the Eisenhower Expressway.
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