Bishop Ford Freeway
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| Bishop Ford Freeway |
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| Formerly the Calumet Expressway | |
| Length: | 10 miles (16 km) |
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| Formed: | 1963 |
| Direction: | Signed east-west, oriented north-south |
| From: |    Interstates 80/94/294, Illinois Route 394 in Thornton, Illinois |
| To: |  Interstates 57/94 in south-central Chicago, Illinois |
| Major cities: | Chicago, Illinois |
| System: | Interstate Highway system |
The Bishop Ford Freeway, formerly known as the Calumet Expressway, is a portion of Interstate 94 in northeastern Illinois, south of downtown Chicago. It runs from Interstate 57 south to the intersection with Interstate 80, Interstate 294 (Tri-State Tollway) and Illinois Route 394. The Bishop Ford constitutes 10 of the 77 miles (16 of 124 km) that Interstate 94 runs in Illinois.
This South Side highway is named for Chicago religious activist Bishop Louis Henry Ford, the former presiding bishop of the 8.5 million member Church of God in Christ. He spent 40 years preaching in the city of Chicago before dying at the age of 81 in 1995.
The Bishop Ford is the only freeway-grade, toll-free road in the Chicago area that is referred to as "Freeway." All of the others (Dan Ryan, Kennedy, Edens, Stevenson, Eisenhower, Elgin-O'Hare, Kingery, and Borman) are called "Expressway," even though there is little or no difference in the quality of the road between the Bishop Ford and the others -- calling them "Expressway" is merely a Chicago colloquialism to which the Bishop Ford is the lone exception.
The Bishop Ford turns into the Dan Ryan Expressway to the north, and the Kingery Expressway to the east of the Tri-State Tollway.
[edit] Lingo
- The Steel Bridge is a common reference to the steel truss bridge over the Calumet River in Dolton.
