"Sweet Home Chicago" a Chicago Travel Page by worldglobetrotter

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Chi-town

"It's 106 miles to Chicago. We've got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark and we're wearing sun glasses. Hit it!"
- Jake and Elwood Blues

I've traveled to Chicago three times...I yearn to go back! I don't know what it was, but Chicago and I hit it off! The Sears Tower, John Hancock Tower, Oprah, shopping, the Magnificent Mile...it's all good!

The first time I traveled to Chicago was also my first time flying anywhere. It was for an ACP/CMA journalism convention. It was fabulous!!! House of Blues was a blast. Red Fish serves delicious grub! John Hancock Tower has a great view. Navy Pier rocks. The Magnificent Mile is enough to send a shopaholic into a coma. The Bulls will always rule.

Chicago has:

30,000,000 annual visitors
198 neighborhoods
2,890,000 residents
110 fire stations
213,000 catch basins
105 hospitals
148,000 manholes
77 community areas
47,330 fire hydrants
64 miles of expressway
26,630 hotel rooms
63 miles of water supply tunnels
25,610 hospital beds
60+ miles of riverfront
13,550 police officers
53 inches of annual snowfall
1,180 Crossing Guards
50 wards
7,000+ restaurants
49 museums
6,400 bike racks
46 movable bridges
4,600+ landmark properties
40+ miles of bike lanes
4,300 miles of sewer mains
31 miles of lakefront
4,290 miles of water mains
30 inches of annual precipitation
4,260 firefighters
29 police horses
3,780 miles of streets
27 mounted police
630 paramedics
18 miles of lakefront trail
600+ public school buildings
15 miles of bathing beaches
560 parks
4 buildings taller than 1,000 feet
228 square miles
3 fire helicopters
200+ annual parades
2 rivers that flow backward
200 live theaters 1 fire boat

SOURCE: City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, Office of Tourism, 2003
City of Chicago Department of Planning and Development, 2003

Chicago firsts

Chicago produced the first...

Roller skates, 1884
Spray paint, late 1940s
Steel-framed skyscraper, 1885 Comprehensive municipal Plan, 1909
Cracker Jacks, 1893 American Nobel Prize-winner, 1907
Zipper, 1896
Controlled atomic reaction, 1942
Window envelope, 1902 Planetarium in W. Hemisphere, 1930
Hostess Twinkie, 1930
Municpal Cultural Center, 1897
Pinball game, 1930
Zoot suit, 1920s
Blood bank, 1937
Car Race, 1895
Rotary Club, 1905
Oscar Mayer "Wienermobile," 1936
All-Star baseball game, 1933 Cafeteria, 1895
Malted milkshake, 1922
U.S. meat slicer, 1909
Automated bread factory, 1910
Daytime TV soap opera, 1949

SOURCE: City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, Chicago Office of Tourism, 2003