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FOREWORDChicago, city of immigrants from every nation, the city of the big shoulders, is still "stormy, husky, brawling," as poet Carl Sandburg extolled it, still rolling up its sleeves and getting to work. This boisterous, boastful, teeming, yet remarkably well-scrubbed prairie city is still king of the Heartland, the quintessential city of the American midwest.Fittingly, for a city of such diversity, the founding father of Chicago was a black man, fur trader Jean Baptiste Pointe DuSable, who in 1779 built his home at the mouth of the Chicago River, near theWrigley Building's present site. In 1833, population 350, the Town of Chicago was incorporated. Completion of a westward canal and the first rail line into Chicago in 1848 ensured the city's destiny as a transportation axis, and its populationalready past five thousandquickly tripled. Cyrus McCormick, inventor of the revolutionary harvesting machine, liked his prospects in the burgeoning new city, and moved his tiny reaper factory to Chicago. The success of the factory, coupled with the opening of the Union Stock Yards in 1865, intertwined the fortunes of the Great Plains farms with those of this emerging metropolis.Today, Chicago is a place of lush green parks (five-hundred-fifty-two citywide, many right downtown), of slate-colored lake waters, of quirky black-and-white bands on the caps of its cops. Of yellow taxis, orange reflections of sunsets off shimmering skyscrapers, sienna-hued festival costumes, and tan walls surprisingly free from the scrawls of "urban artists." Of red Bulls' heads and Bears' crooked "Cs" everywhere, of elegant brownstone villas, and tavern windows flashing blue beer signs. Of white snowflakes, as early as September and as late as May, swirling across the river and up Michigan Avenue and soon mashed to gray. Of neon rainbows along the Magnificent Mile and in the passenger tunnel of O'Hare International Airport. And of thriving, bustling, polyglot neighborhoods.Indeed, Chicago has many attractions which cement its standing as a world-class city. The new central library, for example, a looming red-stone structure with an eighteenth-century look, is the world's largest public library, with almost nine million books and other artifacts.The John G. Shedd Aquariumstill the world's largest such facilityis home to live sharks, sea turtles, and rare tropical fish, while sea otters, whales, dolphins, and seals thrive in its 1990 Ocea-narium annex. The University of Chicago sprawls across 184 acres of South Chicago; its medical, law, economics, and graduate schools are world-renowned. The Art Institute of Chicago, whose bronze lions outside the South Michigan entrance are a favorite city landmark, was built in 1892 to showcase the city's cultural treasures. Now one of the nation's largest art museums, it houses a stunning collection of French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art. Historic and cultural landmarks, like the Old Colony Building, The Wrigley Building, and, of course. Union Stationthe majestic grand staircase of which was the scene of a spectacular shootout between mobsters and G-Men in Brian DePalma's 1987 film The Untouchablesare popular tourist destinations as wellSprawling, burly, this nation's hard-working "Second City," one-time capital of American anarchism and A1 CaponeChicago is a vivid metaphor for the boundless drive, vitality, and variety of America itself.