Portal:Chicago 

  

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Chicago's population of nearly 3 million people and over 9 million people in its metropolitan area make it the third-most populous city and metropolitan area in the United States. Adjacent to Lake Michigan, it is the largest Great Lakes city and among the world's 25 largest urban area by population. Incorporated as a city in 1837 after being founded in 1833 at the site of a portage, it became a transportation hub in North America and the financial capital of the Midwest. Since the World's Fair of 1893, it has been regarded as one of the ten most influential cities in the world. Among its influences are Chicago Pile-1, the first artificial nuclear reactor, and Chicago school architecture. It boast some of the world's tallest buildings (Chicago Spire, Sears Tower, and Trump International Hotel and Tower). The University of Chicago is a leader in many fields and has contributed its own Chicago schools such as Chicago school economics.

Today, Chicago has diverse of cultural offerings: teams from each of the major league sports (Bears, Blackhawks, Bulls, Cubs, and White Sox), a financial district anchored by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange on LaSalle Street in the Chicago Board of Trade Building, and an arts culture anchored by the Art Institute of Chicago and Millennium Park as well as Chicago Landmarks such as Wrigley Field. The Magnificent Mile is a fitting tribute for a city that has revolutionized retail merchandising with mail order catalogs, the money-back guarantee, bridal registry and using posted prices on goods.

Chicago hosts O'Hare (the world's second busiest) and Midway International Airports as well as the renowned 'L' rapid transit system. Chicago was once the capital of the railroad industry and the nation's meatpacking was hubbed at the Union Stock Yards. Chicago has seen the influence of Al Capone and the Cook County Democratic Organization run by Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley. More recent Democrats from Cook County include the first African-American female United States Senator, Carol Mosley-Braun, and the first African-American United States Presidential nominee, Senator Barack Obama.

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Borman Expressway
The Frank Borman Expressway is an east-west highway in northwest portion of the U.S. state of Indiana, carrying Interstate 80, Interstate 94, and U.S. Highway 6, as well as a short section of U.S. Highway 41. The designation begins from the Illinois state line east to the Lake/Porter County Line, just east of the junction with the Indiana Toll Road. The Borman Expressway has been identified in federal transportation legislation as part of High Priority Corridor 18, Segment 27, making current and future construction projects on I-94 eligible for federal funding in association with extending Interstate 69 to the Texas/Mexico border. The Borman Expressway is a major truck thoroughfare, providing a free alternative to the Indiana Toll Road/Chicago Skyway combination (Interstate 90) to the north. Originally constructed in segments starting in the 1950s, with its Illinois counterpart, the Kingery Expressway, reconstruction of the expressway began in 2004. The Borman Expressway is named after Frank Borman, commander of the Apollo 8 space mission, who was born in Gary.
  

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The Chicago Bulls are a National Basketball Association (NBA) team based in Chicago, Illinois. Dick Klein founded the Bulls in 1966 after six other professional basketball teams in Chicago had failed. In 42 Chicago Bulls seasons, the Bulls have achieved a winning record 20 times, and have appeared in the NBA playoffs 27 times. They received international recognition in the 1990s when All-Star shooting guard Michael Jordan led them to their six league championships. The only NBA franchises that have won more championships than the Bulls are the Boston Celtics (17 championships) and Los Angeles Lakers (14). The Bulls initially competed in the NBA's Western Division. The Western Division was renamed the Western Conference in 1970, and was split into the Midwest and Pacific Divisions. The Bulls played in the Midwest Division until 1980, when they moved to the Central Division of the Eastern Conference. (Read more...)

  

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Albert Wistert
Albert Alexander "Ox" Wistert is a former All-Pro American football offensive tackle in the National Football League (NFL) for the Philadelphia Eagles. He played his entire nine-year NFL career for the Eagles and became their team captain. He was named to play in the NFL's first Pro Bowl as an Eagle. During most of Wistert's career there were no football All-star games although he was named to the league All-Pro team eight times. He played college football for the University of Michigan Wolverines. He is one of the three Wistert brothers (Alvin, Francis) who were named All-American Tackles at Michigan and later inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. He was the first Michigan Alum to be selected to the National Football League Pro Bowl. He and his brothers are three of the seven players who have had their numbers retired by the Michigan Wolverines football program.
  

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"Chicago is the greatest and most typically American of all cities. New York is bigger and more spectacular and can outmatch it in other superlatives, but it is a “world” city, more European in some respects than American." — John Gunther

  

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Heller House
The Isidore H. Heller House is a house located at 5132 Woodlawn Avenue in the Hyde Park community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, USA. The house was designed by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. The design is credited as one of the turning points in Wright's shift to geometric, Prairie School architecture, which is defined by horizontal lines, flat or hipped roofs with broad overhanging eaves, windows grouped in horizontal bands, and an integration with the landscape, which is meant to evoke native Prairie surroundings. The work demonstrates Wright's shift away from emulating the style of his mentor, Louis Sullivan. Richard Bock, a Wright collaborator and sculptor, provided some of the ornamentation, including a plaster frieze. The ownership history of this building demonstrates the property's evolution and development in the framework of surrounding Hyde Park buildings, and the building's location in the current community—near other Prairie School architecture—includes this building into the overall body of Lloyd Wright's work. The Heller House was designated a Chicago Landmark on September 15, 1971, and added to the National Register of Historic Places on March 16, 1972. On 18 August 2004, the U.S. Department of the Interior designated the house a National Historic Landmark.
  

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Featured articles: Chicago Bears • Chicago Board of Trade Building • Michael Jordan • Barack Obama • Pioneer Zephyr • The Smashing Pumpkins • South Side • Joseph W. Tkach • 1880 Republican National Convention • Interstate 355 • Lee Smith • Oliver Typewriter Company • Prairie Avenue • Wilco

Featured lists: List of Chicago Landmarks • Chicago Bears seasons • Wilco discography • List of Kanye West awards • List of Alpha Kappa Alpha sisters • List of Chicago Bears head coaches

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The maze of livestock pens and walkways at the Union Stock Yards, Chicago, by John Vachon, Farm Security Administration

Chicago Skyline from Adler Planetarium, by Buphoff

Multilevel streets in Chicago, by SPUI

Steam locomotives of the Chicago & North Western Railway in the roundhouse at the Chicago, Illinois rail yards, by Jack Delano, Farm Security Administration

Barack Obama delivers a speech at the University of Southern California, by Ari Levinson
  

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