"Chicago (Permanently Under Construction) " a Chicago Travel Page by grkboiler

This is my favorite city in the world, and not because I live so close. I spend lots of time here each week, for the restaurants, nightlife, and sporting events. This is also one of the most beautiful cities in the world, and it has the best skyline in America. When traveling to the US, Chicago is a city that should not be missed.

I guess I now have an excuse to go see things that I usually don't pay attention to. This will be my longest project on VT, and probably will never get finished.

If you are only in town for a couple days, here are some quick suggestions of what to do:

Eat deep dish pizza & a Chicago-style hot dog. Actually, eat lots more than that. Chicago has it all.
Take in a sporting event - this is one of the best sports towns in the world.
Walk Michigan Ave.
Head to the observation decks at Sears Tower or Hancock Center for a different look at the city.
Visit one of the great world-class museums.
Visit Buckingham fountain and also get a great view of the skyline.
Take an informative cruise on the Chicago River (as long as Dave Matthews Band tour bus is not in town).
Go to a show at Second City.

By the way, don't waste your time at Navy Pier - its overrated.

Chicago is unique. The lakeshore, Chicago politics, the people, the neighborhoods, the architecture, and its vivid history make it an amazing city. It has shed its bad reputation as the city of gangsters, Al Capone, and John Dillinger, and city of corruption and doing politics the Chicago way by "voting early and voting often".

This is a city with rich cultural backgrounds brought in by its immigrants and making it what it is today. It is the city in the US with the 3rd largest population of foreign born citizens. There aren't too many cities in America where ethnicity is as important as it is in Chicago. You will find large and proud thriving ethnic communities of Polish, African American, Mexican, Italian, Irish, Greek, Ukrainian, Jewish, Lithuanian, Chinese, Korean, and many more. In fact, the population of Poles have sometimes outnumbered Warsaw, and it is one of the largest Greek cities outside of Greece.

Some important dates in Chicago history:

It all started in 1673 when the area was explored with the help of friendly Indians by Father Jacques Marquette, a French missionary, and Louis Joliet, a French-Canadian explorer. The first permanent resident of what was to become Chicago was an African American from Haiti, Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable, in 1779. The settlement was on the north bank of the Chicago River just east of where the Michigan Avenue Bridge now stands.

Fort Dearborn was built in 1803 at the mouth of the Chicago River. It stood until 1856. On August 2, 1833, Chicago was incorporated as a town with a population of just 350 and an area the size of 3/8 of a mile. The name of the town comes from an Indian word meaning "smelly onion" for a plant that once grew there, although some historians believe it means anything "great" or "strong". Only a few years later on March 4, 1837, Chicago became a city with 4,170 people. William B. Ogden was chosen as the first mayor.

Canals, railroads, and infrastructure improvements were completed in the mid-1800's, and the Chicago Union Stockyard was opened Christmas Day in 1865, lasting in business until July 30, 1971. It took up an entire square mile of the city.

The Great Chicago Fire ravaged the city starting on October 8, 1871 at 9pm. Nobody knows the real cause but it was blamed on Mrs. O'Leary's cow kicking over a lantern in her barn. 300 people died, 90,000 were homeless, and there was $200 million of damage. The city quickly rebuilt by 1875.

In 1885, Chicago started building up with the first skyscraper. It was only 9 stories high. In 1900, sanitation was improved by reversing the flow of the Chicago River. In 1927, Chicago had its first airport, Midway. On December 2, 1942, Enrico Fermi conducted the first controlled atomic reaction at the University of Chicago. In 1943, the subway opened.

In the 1960's, expressways were built. In 1973, the Sears Tower was completed making it the tallest building in the world. It still has the tallest occupied floor in the world.

I live in Northwest Indiana (aka The Region), which is right next to Chicago. I love it here, AND I hate it here. In my opinion, we might as well be annexed by Illinois, which would probably be better for our local economy because our current state government is clueless about our industrial culture. We are the area of Indiana that is looked down upon by the rest of the state (for plenty of reasons).

We get Chicago TV and radio, to the extent that I can tell you everything you need to know about Chicago current events, and nothing about Indiana, period (except for my local area). Also, thousands of NWI residents commute to Chicago for work every day, and we are the only part of Indiana that changes clocks. We have a unique culture that is different than both Chicago and the rest of Indiana.

What makes me laugh is that many people in Chicago and suburbs act like NWI is hours away when it is actually just around the corner, and closer than many Illinois suburbs of Chicago. I can make it from my house to the loop in 25 min! (Without traffic, of course)

Basically, don't think of Indianapolis and farms when someone says they are from Northwest Indiana - think next to Chicago and steel mills.