The Chicago and Milwaukee Railway was a predecessor of the Chicago and North Western Railway (C&NW) in the U.S. states of Illinois and Wisconsin. The Illinois portion was chartered on February 17, 1851 as the Illinois Parallel Railroad. Its charter permitted construction of a 44.6 mile rail line northward from Chicago through Waukegan, Illinois to Wisconsin paralleling Lake Michigan at a distance of no less than ten miles from the lake's west shore. The IPRR's board first met on September 9, 1851. On February 5, 1853, the line's name became the Chicago and Milwaukee Railroad, and construction reached Waukegan on December 19, 1854.