Milwaukee's topography? (Wauwatosa, Brookfield, Slinger: moving, bike, metro)

[ajf131]

Just wondering about Milwaukee and the Milwaukee metro topography. Is it flat as a pancake or does it have rolling hills as well? I know that downtown appears to be as flat as a board, but am curious about the rest of the surrounding metro.

[quijote]

Originally Posted by ajf131

Just wondering about Milwaukee and the Milwaukee metro topography. Is it flat as a pancake or does it have rolling hills as well? I know that downtown appears to be as flat as a board, but am curious about the rest of the surrounding metro.

A lot of it is quite flat, but there are some hilly spots here and there and in the hinterlands (like the Holy Hill area).

In the city itself, I like driving into the depths of the Menomonee Valley, and I also like the descent from State Street into Miller Valley. I'd love to hear about other such textured areas of the city.

[43north87west]

Originally Posted by ajf131

Just wondering about Milwaukee and the Milwaukee metro topography. Is it flat as a pancake or does it have rolling hills as well? I know that downtown appears to be as flat as a board, but am curious about the rest of the surrounding metro.

The city is kind of flat, and downtown is built in what amounts to a valley (a small one).

Moving west from Milwaukee, there is a subcontinental divide which is identified by a large hill and a change in elevation by a couple hundred feet. The easiest way to identify this is traveling west on I-94, crossing 124th street and traveling uphill for a mile or two. Everything west of this point is in the Mississippi River watershed, everything east flows to Lake Michigan. (This divide varies in longitude as one moves north or south from I-94) Also the topography changes west of this point. Brookfield offers a lot of rolling hills, and Washington County offers even more. The area from Chenequa to Slinger is very hilly and beautiful. There are other areas of hills as well, but these are closest to Milwaukee.

The western part of Wisconsin is anything but flat... but that's for another thread.

[Milwaukee Ronnie]

As a daily bicyclist (yes, including in the winter) I feel like I am uniquely qualified to opine on Milwaukee's topography.

The city is definately not flat as a pancake. I've been to some Midwestern cities, such as Chicago or Indianapolis, that have nary a single change in elevation. Totally flat as a board. Milwaukee does have some decent hills. The Downtown area was built over a swamp, which means that thoroughfares leading out of the Downtown can have some pretty good hills. Milwaukee's lakeshore, quite unlike Chicago's has an abrupt change in elevation as it consists mostly of bluffs overlooking the lake. Tackling some of these monster hills on a bike can be a good challenge.

Milwaukee's name originates from an Algonquin word, that, legend has it, means "gathering of the waters." The city was built at the point where three rivers empty into Lake Michigan. These three rivers have their own river valleys that, for the most part, gently carve the topography. Sometimes these valleys have form hills that are not so gentle. There are places on the West Side and Wauwatosa where there are hills like San Francisco. Very steep. These hills are not the norm, however.

Overall, Milwaukee is not as flat as Chicago, but not nearly has hilly as San Francisco. It's somewhere in the middle.