Live cameras in Waukegan, United States

Waukegan is the county seat of Lake County, Illinois, a lakeshore city of about 89,000 people (2020 census) roughly 36 miles north of downtown Chicago. Its name comes from a Potawatomi word for a fort or trading post, and early French traders knew the spot as Little Fort; the city took the name Waukegan in 1849. Shipping, brewing and factories built the town, and today its harbor, the Waukegan Harbor Light and the restored Genesee Theatre downtown are the landmarks most visitors know. The science fiction writer Ray Bradbury was born here and drew on his hometown in his stories.

Waukegan has more than 220 cameras of its own on LiveLocation, all published through the Illinois DOT Gateway feed; many of them belong to Lake County PASSAGE, the county's traffic management system, which shares its views through Gateway. They are still images refreshed every few minutes, aimed at lanes and intersections rather than the lake. Further down the page you will also find cameras from North Chicago, Gurnee, Zion, Beach Park and Park City.

What to look for

• Interstate 94, the Tri-State Tollway, on the western side of the area
• U.S. Route 41, the main north-south highway inland from the lake
• Illinois Routes 120, 132 and 137, including the Amstutz Expressway near the lakefront
• Grand Avenue and Belvidere Road, the city's main east–west streets

Waukegan runs on Central Time with daylight saving. The heaviest flows run south toward Chicago in the early morning and back north in the late afternoon. In June the sun rises around 5:15 a.m. and sets after 8:20 p.m.; in December it is dark before 4:30 p.m. Winter is the most interesting season to watch: snow squalls and cold winds come off Lake Michigan, and you can see how fast plows clear the main routes. Spring and early summer sometimes bring lake fog that hangs along the shore.

Nearby, Illinois Beach State Park stretches along the lake to the north, toward Zion, and the Metra Union Pacific North line links Waukegan's lakefront station with Chicago and Kenosha, Wisconsin.

Sources: Waukegan, Illinois - Wikipedia · Getting Around Illinois (Illinois DOT traffic cameras).