The name "Loop" is said to have originated from the route of a cable car line that en"circle"d the central business district in 1882, prior to the construction of the Loop elevated railroad tracks in 1897. The Loop has since become a term for the city's historic downtown, an area roughly bounded by the Chicago River on the north and west, Grant Park on the east and Congress Parkway to the south.

The three dozen landmarks on this tour represent an amazing cross-section of the city's architecture and history, ranging from Post-Fire of 1871 structures to early steel-framed skyscrapers from the turn of the century to Art Deco-style high rises of the 1920s and '30s. Among the architects whose buildings are featured are Daniel Burnham, Holabird & Roche, William Le Baron Jenney, John Wellborn Root, and Louis Sullivan.

Heald Square Monument 35 East Wacker Building Carbide & Carbon Building Lake-Franklin Group Harris & Selwyn Theaters Oliver Building Delaware Building Page Brothers Building Chicago Theater City Hall Chicago Public Library/Cultural Center Civic Opera Building Washington Block One North LaSalle Building Reliance Building Chicago Building Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company Building Haskell-Barker-Atwater Buildings Jewelers Building Gage Group

Field Building Marquette Building Rookery Building Chapin Gore Building Brooks Building Chicago Board of Trade Building Monadnock Block Fisher Building Old Colony Building Manhattan Building Leiter II Building Fine Arts Building Auditorium Building Inland Steel Building Heyworth Building Historic Michigan Boulevard District Mather Tower Jewelers Row District Daley Center Old Dearborn Bank Building Pittsfield Building

You will find tour links in this location on every page. Look for this arrow to continue the The Loop tour.