Who was Dan Ryan?

Occasionally, a major highway was given a new name by state or federal officials, often after the death of a prominent politician. The renaming was deemed respectful and meant to preserve the memory of a worthy leader.

The change received the wholehearted, public support of city government leaders who saw it as an opportunity to be associated with a praiseworthy act. And they could pose in photos that displayed the new signage.

So, the Northwest Expressway became the John F. Kennedy Expressway in 1963, the Southwest Expressway became the Adlai Stevenson II Expressway in 1965, and the Congress Expressway, passing through the city’s west side where Congress Avenue had been, became the Dwight Eisenhower Expressway in 1969.

The Calumet Expressway, which hugged the Illinois side of the state border with Indiana and passed through many Black neighborhoods and suburbs, became the Bishop Louis Ford Freeway in 1996, honoring a Black religious leader.

Two esteemed fellows became highways right from the start. William Edens, a non-driver who once headed the Illinois Highway Improvement Association, had his name slapped on the city’s first expressway, which started on the northwest side and passed through the north suburbs in 1953.

Former Cook County Board President Daniel Ryan is better known as an expressway that has run through the south side of Chicago since 1961.