Most cities pale in comparison to this urban enclave whose stunning skyline erupts from the western shores of Lake Michigan. Chicago is host to a world of ethnic and religious diversity, world-class educational institutions and shopping, plus commerce and industry. All are enveloped within incomparable architecture. It is also a place of raging winters and seductive summers, crowded highways and tranquil parks, famous people and friendly folks. It might be called the ‘Second City’, but its spectrum is second to none.
The poet Carl Sandburg called it the ‘City of the Big Shoulders’ but Chicago got its most famous nickname in 1893, when, after growing exasperated with the long-winded boastings of the city’s politicians, Charles Dana, editor of the New York Sun, dubbed it ‘the Windy City’. The civic pride was not misplaced. Chicago had changed from a mere village of 350 people in 1830, to the growing nation’s ‘Second City’ (to New York), capable of hosting the 1893 World’s Columbia Exposition, which attracted 26 million visitors during its six-month run. The Exposition was the culmination of a phoenix-like recovery from the great fire of 1871, which levelled the central business district and left about 100,000 people homeless.
Because of its strategic location, Chicago became famous as a hub for roads, canals, railways and aeroplanes. In the 1920s, during Prohibition, gangsters like Al Capone and police adversaries like Eliot Ness made it infamous.
The Windy City has always prided itself on being a centre for culture. All year round, there are festivals, exhibitions, parades and full programmes of theatre, dance, art and all types of music, including a world-class symphony. The famous Art Institute is home to an extraordinary collection of French Impressionists, as well as American artist Grant Wood’s classic work, American Gothic. Works by René Magritte and Andy Warhol can be found at the Museum of Contemporary Art. Ernest Hemingway was born in the near west suburb of Oak Park, which he described ungenerously as full of ‘wide lawns and narrow minds.’
Famous architects, such as Louis Sullivan, Mies van der Rohe and Frank Lloyd Wright and his Prairie School of Architecture, thrived here. Fittingly, with architecture being perhaps the ultimate combination of industry and art, the world’s first steel-framed skyscraper, the Reliance Building (now the Hotel Burnham) was built here. The city’s most recent contribution to architecture and art is Millennium Park. The park is the setting for the works of Frank Gehry, Jaume Plensa and Anish Kapoor.
The modern city focuses on the area known as the Loop, where the raised metropolitan railway (known as the ‘El’ or ‘L’) circles the central Downtown business and shopping district. The east side of the city edges on to Lake Michigan. Chicago is one of the most culturally diverse cities and in the world. Over 50 languages are spoken here. The city’s multitude of cultures can be gauged just by checking its list of annual ethnic parades and festivals.
Today, the city’s economy no longer relies upon the heavy industries of steel production or meatpacking. Instead, it leans toward communications, information technology and financial institutions as well as research and development both in commerce and in its academic faculties. For instance, the Chicago Board of Trade, founded in 1848 for the purpose of trading in futures, commodities and options, is still one of the world’s major centres for such business.
Hard-working Chicagoans love sports, both as participants and fans. Many can be seen playing along the lakeshores. In fact, this energy and the lake combine well to represent Chicago in a way quite similar to how the original American Indians thought of it. They named it Checaugou, after the River Checaugou (Chicago River), which flowed into Lake Michigan. The word translates as ‘strong’ or ‘great’ and modern-day Chicago certainly lives up to this heritage.