Chicago is one of the largest cities in the US. It’s in a state of Illinois and it’s the most populous city in its state as well as in the Midwestern US. Chicago is located on Lake Michigan, which is one of the five Great Lakes in North America. Chicago is also very well known and popular so a lot of tourists go to visit Chicago every year, which is understandable because Chicago is one of the international centers of technology, finance, culture, and education. Overall, Chicago is the second most visited city in the nation. The first one is New York City, but the difference is not significant. Also, there are many great parks and museums in Chicago and people from all around the world will be happy to see them.
Chicago is also known for a great fire that happened. Great Chicago Fire is an event that occurred in October 8-10, 1871 which killed around 3 people, destroyed more than 3 square miles and left many people homeless. Damages were severe after that, and the city needed to be rebuilt. It was rebuilt with higher standards and more resistant to future fires. Because of rebuilding, the architecture of Chicago also changed, obviously. Chicago entered the skyscraper era and its skyline is one of the tallest in the world and it has one of the tallest buildings of the US.
Chicago Interesting Facts
1. City in a Garden
If you like nature, parks, and gardens, you will definitely like Chicago. It’s home to some of the greatest parks in the world and it has a lot of beautiful ones as well. People from all around the world come to Chicago just for its parks. There are over 600 parks in Chicago, over 500 playgrounds and 70 sanctuaries for birds or just nature itself.
Probably the most popular attraction in Chicago is Navy Pier. It’s a pier on Lake Michigan and it has more than 50 acres of gardens, restaurants, shops and other attractions. A very popular landmark in Chicago is also Lincoln Park, especially because of its zoo, Lincoln Park Zoo, which is one of the oldest zoos in North America.
2. City of Art and Culture
Chicago is also very important because of its art and culture. So, one can guess that you can find many museums in Chicago.
As for the field of music, believe it or not, Chicago is home to some music genres like house, gospel, electric blues, footwork, and some others, which is an interesting fact about Chicago. This city has over 250 live music venues and some of them are among the greatest North America has to offer. It also has a lot of festivals and some of them are extremely popular. You can find a festival for almost every music genre and you are not likely to be disappointed.
Chicago also has some film festivals, more than 40 actually. It also has one of the largest soundstages in North America.
There are also many dance companies in Chicago, and some of them are very successful, so the dance stage of Chicago actually offered some new dancing genres. With more than 200 professional dance companies, Chicago will always have to offer some dance performing in its venues or even parks.
3. Colors of Chicago
Everyone can agree that Chicago is quite colorful. However, this headline is not for the city itself. Chicago had few innovations that changed the modern world. Probably the most impressive one is their all-color TV station. So Chicago offered the first all-color station to the world on April 15th in 1956. year.
Another pretty impressive innovation that many people don’t know about is spray paint. Everyone can agree that they are very popular and it was born in Chicago because paint salesman Ed Seymour had the idea of putting paint in a can that has a spray tip.
4. River That Flows Backwards
An interesting fact about Chicago is that it has the only river in the world that flows backward. That river is called the Chicago River and it has a lot of history behind it. There was a project that needed to reverse Chicago River so it can redirect the sewage away. This project is known as the biggest public earth-moving project that is actually completed. Plan to reverse Chicago River began in the year 1887 and it was not easy to do in any way, so it shows that Chicago also has very good engineers.
5. The First Blood Bank in the US
The first place in the US where you could donate or receive blood was in Chicago. Doctors were also allowed to examine given blood so opening a blood bank was very helpful for all of the US, not only Chicago. Medicine really developed because of this idea of examining donated blood. Other hospitals in the US also recognized this development, so they also started opening their blood banks as well.
6. Science and Medicine of Chicago
A useful fact about Chicago is that it is also very important for the science of the US. It also has a lot of museums that are open to everybody and everyone that is into science will enjoy visiting those museums. Probably the most popular museum for science in Chicago is the Museum of Science and Industry. Also very popular and kind of unique is the International Museum of Surgical Science. As for medicine of Chicago, the first open-heart surgery in the world happened in Chicago in 1893 by Dr. Daniel Hale Williams. Thanks to his bravery and knowledge, he was able to save the life of a man stabbed close to the heart.
7. The City Built From Ashes
Great Chicago Fire is already mentioned in this article. It was a very unfortunate event but it was also very important for Chicago. It was said that this fire started in a small barn close to DeKoven Street. The exact cause of the fire was never determined but it made big damages to the city
Conclusion
Chicago is one of the most fascinating cities in the entire nation of the US. It has a very long and rich history. There were also many innovations in Chicago that even changed the world, and some of them are really inspiring. Chicago is very popular with a little less than 3 million people living there and it’s justified by its culture and attractions.
I hope that this article on interesting facts about Chicago was helpful! If you are interested, visit the City Facts Page!
