I’m no expert on Chicago and I’ve just been here 5 times, but I loved this place ever since I first landed here. Situated on the coast of Lake Michigan and built around Chicago river, the city is the heart of the mid-west. It is interesting that the entire city was rebuilt after a major fire brought the whole city into ashes, sparing 3-4 buildings, in the year 1871. Known as ‘The Windy City’, Chicago is prone to fire accidents and it is attributed to the wind here that can spread even a small fire into a calamity. Below is the picture of the a tower that survived the fire accident (Water authority tower or something). It was the tallest building back then.
Situated in the middle of nowhere, I didn’t know Chicago had beaches around the city, until a few years ago. The city has a 31 mile stretch of coastline. Although it is just a lake, the lake is the second largest of the great five lakes and is the size of Kerala. What is good about this city is that there are no industries along the coastline. I think the city planers were knowledgeable about the recent real estate bubble back then. Below is the picture of the coastline on the north side of Chicago.
It is interesting, how, many cities around the world were built around rivers, primarily attributed to proximity to water resources for both agriculture and Industries. Most of the popular buildings in Chicago are built around the river. Its also interesting that so many of the skyscrapers of Chicago are built on marsh land between the river and the Lake. Another interesting fact about this river is that unlike most rivers this river does not flow into the bigger water body (lake Michigan). Earlier it used to, but then there was a lot of waste being flown into the lake that got accumulated near Chicago, leading to many water borne diseases and floods. So, engineers worked on the river and reversed the flow of the water! I wonder how they did that. Below is the picture of the river.
One of the most popular streets of the city is Michigan Avenue. This is where most of the Shopping happens in Chicago. I don’t know why, this street reminded me of Himayatnagar a lot. The big lane in the picture, Michigan Avenue: (BTW the water tower on top is also in the picture almost at the bottom)
Now, if you are wondering where these breathtaking views came from; It is my work. This is from the top of the John Hancock Building, the second tallest building in Chicago and the view is from 94th floor. When I visited Chicago to visit the Spanish Embassy for my Visa for the upcoming Europe trip, I had a lot of free time at my dispense. I went around roaming the downtown area in Chicago and went on top of this building. Well, some other interesting pictures I took during this time (boring aspects of travelling alone):
Chicago Tribune is one of the oldest newspapers here, which published its first edition in 1847 and it all started from here.
And the below picture covers almost half of the downtown Chicago; In the fag end on the top left side is the Sears tower, the tallest building in Chicago.
What is most admirable about this city so far for me has been the fact that this city quite literally rose from ashes. Two weeks back, it took just hours for Chicago to recover from a deadly snow storm with over 20 inches of snow on a day. Chicago is known for being resilient on many notorious feats of ‘mother nature’ like Wind, fire, flood and snow. This indispensable spirit of the city, to make it a better place to live, is commendable.
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