Chicago is the third most populous city in the US. It was founded in 1833 and has now 2.8 million residents.
It is sometimes called the Windy City. Chicago gave us Walt Disney, Barrack Obama, Billy Corgan, and - perhaps
most importantly - in 1950, remote control. Also, the first skyscraper was built here in 1885.
Uploaded on: 2010-10-07. Updated on: 2025-12-31.
Map showing Chicago, Illinois, USA location (opens in OpenStreetMap)
Chicago has a rapid transit system called "L" and it is America's second longest rapid transit system
(after the NY one). The total length is over 170km.
Formerly known as Sears Tower, Willis Tower is the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere, and the
fifth-tallest freestanding structure in the world. Here you can see it in the background, the black building.
It is 442 meters tall.
Here, Tara around 420m above ground in a skybox, a glass structure sticking out of the building. The floor is
less than two inches thick.
The Willis Tower elevators are among the fastest in the world. They go about 488 meters per minute. That's a bit over
8m per second, or 29km/h.
That's what the city looks like from Willis Tower. You can see Lake Michigan - its area is 58,000 square km,
making it the fifth largest lake in the world. The greatest depth is 281m.
Jackowo is the Polish Quarter in Chicago. It turns out that most Poles are gone, as they have moved
to more upscale neighborhoods; they were replaced by immigrants from Latin America and the former
Soviet Bloc.
However, there still are numerous Polish stores and restaurants (although not always operated by Polish-American
people). There are no problems with getting kiełbasa or pierogi.
Made of stainless steel, its size is 10m by 13m by 20m. Many experts were consulted before it was built
and some of them claimed it could not be built at all.
Opened in 2004, four years behind schedule, Millenium Park cost 475 million dollars. Its development
process was criticized and lots of mistakes were made, but the outcome was praised by many critics.
Here, the Crown Fountain, an interactive video sculpture. The faces belong to ordinary Chicagoans.
The river that flows through Chicago is called Chicago River. Originally it flowed into Lake Michigan,
together with sewage and other nasty stuff. Then the sewage would come back and would be drank by Chicagoans.
That became the reason for public health problems (including typhoid fever). So in 1900 the flow was reversed.
Still, it was known as the stinking river. However, in 1990, extensive cleaning happened and the river is now
clean and doesn't stink. In your face, Venice!ISO 200, 29mm, f/4.0, 1/1000s.
