The 606 Trail (Bloomingdale Trail): Map, Access, Hours and What to Know

The 606 is a straight ribbon of trail raised about 20 feet above the Northwest Side street grid³. Browse the full list of Routes & Trails for the rest.

What it is

The 606 takes the old Bloomingdale rail line and makes it a park. The elevated Bloomingdale Trail is its centerpiece. It connects to four neighborhood parks at ground level, an observatory and art installations¹. The trail runs about 20 feet above street level³.

The Bloomingdale Line was built in 1873². The line was raised roughly twenty feet in the 1910s, to reduce pedestrian deaths at grade crossings². Steel-reinforced concrete embankment walls line the corridor, with 38 viaducts². After more than a century of service, the tracks fell into disuse by the mid-1990s³.

The idea for The 606 was officially presented in 2003 as part of a city initiative for more green space on the Northwest Side³. The City of Chicago bought the right-of-way from Canadian Pacific in January 2013². The park opened on June 6, 2015².

The name

“The 606” is a nickname drawn from the numbers common to Chicago zip codes. The trail spans 60647 and 60622³. The trail itself is officially the Bloomingdale Trail³.

Start, end and access

The trail runs east to west, 2.7 miles in all². The east end is on Ashland Avenue in Bucktown and Wicker Park. The west end is on Ridgeway Avenue, near the edge of Humboldt Park and Hermosa³.

Two useful exits:

Exit	What is there
Damen Avenue	Walk to Six Corners, the center of Wicker Park3
Humboldt Overlook	A short walk to Humboldt Park and its lagoons3

Hours and surface

The 606 park and trail system is open every day from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m.¹. The surface is concrete, with a blue rubberized running path on each side². Cyclists, walkers and runners share it during park hours². E-scooters are not allowed³.

What you pass

Four street-level parks connect to the trail: Walsh Park, Churchill Park, Park 567 and Julia de Burgos Park³. On the trail itself are the Damen Arts Plaza, the Humboldt Overlook, the Milwaukee Bridge, the St. Louis Overlook and the Exelon Observatory at Ridgeway². The observatory sits at the west end, where a spiraling path leads to a platform marking the winter and summer solstices³. The Humboldt Overlook is a lookout point with plenty of seating above the tree-lined boulevard³. The Damen Arts Plaza has bleacher seating and rotating large-scale sculpture³. More than one million people use The 606 each year³.

Renting a bike nearby

Bikes are available from Divvy stations near the trail³. For a longer route that ties the trail to neighborhood streets, see the Bucktown and Wicker Park bike ride. To connect to the lake, the Lakefront Trail guide covers the next step.

The extension

The Chicago Department of Transportation unveiled a plan in August 2023 to extend the trail east of Ashland Avenue. It would cross over Ashland Avenue, go under the Kennedy Expressway and the Metra rail corridor, and reach Elston Avenue². The extension is planned for late 2027².

Events

Friends of the Bloomingdale Trail run a yearly trail run, with the 2024 edition on September 28⁴. Public art, seasonal plantings and soundwalks fill the calendar through the year⁴.