Chicago [antikvár]

INTRODUCTION Often referred to as the 'Crossroads of America', Chicago, the country's second largest city, commands a prime position along the southern shores of Lake Michigan. The site of Chicago was visited by Jesuit Missionaries in 1673 and Fort Dearborn, then a frontier fort, was built there in 1803. By 1833 it was merely a small village with a population of just over four thousand, but after it was chartered as a city four years later, large numbers of land speculators and genuine settlers, together with some less desirable people, arrived to set up homes and businesses. In the 1850's Chicago had become not only a significant commercial and industrial city but also an important railroad centre. Alas, its reputation was also growing as a city where crime and vice were rampant -a reputation it was to retain for many more years. The Civil War which began in 1861 interrupted Chicago's grovvdh, as it did that of other towns and cities throughout the country Many Chicagoans joined the Union Army under President Abraham Lincoln in order to fight against the Southern States. After the war Chicago flourished and it was during this period that several now famous companies such as Montgomery Ward & Co., and Sears Roebuck, the great mail order catalogue company, emerged. A real catastrophe occurred, however, in 1871, after a particularly hot and dry summer and autumn. According to legend, Mrs O'Learys cow kicked over a lantern in her barn which ignited the hay. The resultant fire raged for two days, fanned by strong winds. Nearly three hundred people died and one hundred thousand were left homeless and a third of the city's 15,000 buildings were destroyed. The damage was estimated at 200 million dollars and aid poured into Chicago i^om all over the world. One million dollars was sent from Great Britain, together with a gift of 5,000 books, which formed the nucleus for the city's public library system. The fire was not Chicago's only disaster. In 1903 another fire in the Iroquois Theatre Idlled over six hundred adults and children, and just a few years later more than eight hundred people drowned when a lake steamer capsized on the Chicago River, after a large number of passengers aboard rushed to one side to wave goodbye to those on the bank. After the devastation of the Great Fire - as it came to be Imown - rebuilding began in earnest, but this time in brick and stone rather than vulnerable wood. Hotels, offices and railroad stations, designed by Chicago's new and talented breed of architects, rose to new heights. One of the architects of Chicago's rebuilding was William LeBaron Jenney, who is considered to be the father of the modern skyscraper. He, along with others from the now internationally renowned Chicago School of Architecture, introduced new concepts in building. They set out to design structures in which people would feel comfortable and that were suitable for the activities carried on within them. Prior to the Great Fire, there were three major inventions which greatly aided the architects. The first was a mechanized elevator which could provide easy access to the upper storeys of tall blocks. Secondly, iron frames, replacing load-bearing masonry walls, made it possible to build to a greater height and, lastly, advances had been made in the laying of foundations, again making it possible to build taller and heavier buildings on the swampy soil. The slcyscraper era had arrived. Today, Chicago boasts the world's tallest building, the Sears Tower which, at over 1,454 feet above sea level, is a hundred feet taller than its nearest rival, the World Trade Centre in New York. Still impressive, although not so high, are the Standard Oil Building and the John Hancock Centers - known local y as Big Stan and Big John - the fourth and fifth tallest buildings in the world. These three sltyscrapers dominate the magnificent slcyline of Chicago that loolts out across Lake Michigan. Along the lake's shore are yacht marinas, imaginative parks and sandy beaches. North of the central business area are the affluent suburbs and, to the south, a vast complex of oil refineries, steel mills and factories. Lake Michigan is plied by large freighters using the St Lawrence Seaway, river barges from the Mississippi and Great Lakes Carriers. In addition, countless pleasure craft take advantage of the