This corridor served as a gateway into the country's interior, carrying several well-worn Indian trails later used by fur traders and explorers. It was also an important portage between Lake Michigan and the Des Plaines River, though the “Dismal Nine Mile Swamp” often proved too wet for wagons and too dry for canoes, hindering commerce to Chicago. One trail, later Ogden Avenue, was improved into a ten-mile wood plank toll road opened in 1848 to connect Chicago and Riverside, but the planks quickly rotted and warped, and commerce shifted to the I&M Canal and later the Chicago Burlington and Quincy Railroad. Renamed Ogden Avenue in 1872 in honor of Chicago's first mayor, William Butler Ogden, portions of the road were bricked over by 1900 to accommodate growing traffic, then paved in 1920 for smoother automobile travel. From 1926 to 1976, Ogden Avenue formed part of U.S. Route 66, linking Chicago to Los Angeles.