Chicago is a huge city in northeastern Illinois that stretches along the southwest shore of Lake Michigan. It is the third largest city in the United States. Only New York City and Los Angeles have more people. Chicago also ranks among the world’s leading industrial and transportation centers.
About 2 3/4 million people live in this energetic city. The Chicago area is a national leader in the manufacture of fabricated metal products and food products. Trucks and railroad cars carry huge amounts of goods in and out of Chicago.
The American poet Carl Sandburg called Chicago the “City of the Big Shoulders.” And the city does do things in a big way. For example, Chicago has one of the world’s largest commodity exchanges, one of the world’s largest concentrations of medical facilities, and some of the world’s tallest buildings.
Chicago also has one of the world’s most beautiful lakefronts. Most of it is public parkland, with broad beaches and lawns stretching far along the shoreline. In addition, the city has an excellent symphony orchestra and fascinating museums. Chicago surprises many of its millions of annual visitors because its historic image as a hub of business and industry has overshadowed its rich tradition of beauty and culture.
Throughout its history, Chicago has been known for providing good jobs. Young men from Germany and Ireland came to Chicago to dig a shipping canal soon after Chicago became a city in 1837. During the next 100 years, thousands of European families came to work in Chicago’s factories, steel mills, and shipping businesses. By the late 1800’s, Chicago had become an industrial and commercial giant.
In 1871, the Great Chicago Fire destroyed much of the city. But Chicagoans rebuilt their city with a daring that made it a center of world architecture. During the 1920’s, Chicago gained a reputation for crime and violence that it has never lived down. Yet the 1920’s was also a creative period in the arts, and the booming industries in Chicago continued to attract new residents.
Since the mid-1900’s, most newcomers to Chicago have been Black and white people from poor areas of the South; Hispanic families from Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Central America; and Asian families. Some newcomers have lacked the skills and education needed for today’s jobs. Other problems for the city include a high crime rate in poor neighborhoods and a public school system with a high dropout rate.
Suburbs spread out far beyond the city. They provide both living and recreation space, and a growing number of jobs.
The city
Chicago extends about 25 miles (40 kilometers) along the southwest shore of Lake Michigan in northeastern Illinois. It lies on a plain 595 feet (181 meters) above sea level. 
The Chicago River flows westward from Lake Michigan near the center of the city. It is famous as the river that flows backward. The river flowed into the lake until 1900. That year, engineers reversed the flow to prevent sewage in the river from polluting the lake, which provides Chicago’s water supply. About 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) inland from the lake, the river splits into two branches. One branch flows northwest through Chicago. The other flows south into the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, which cuts southwest through the city.
Chicago has four main sections: (1) Downtown, (2) the North Side, (3) the West Side, and (4) the South Side.
Downtown Chicago
is known for its spectacular skyscrapers, huge department stores, fashionable shops, and beautiful “front yard,” Grant Park. Every workday, hundreds of thousands of people stream into the downtown area to work. Thousands of people live downtown in luxurious, modern high-rise apartment buildings, new single-family row houses, and handsome old office buildings that have been remodeled into apartments.
The main downtown area extends about 16 blocks south and about 7 blocks north of the Chicago River’s main stem. It extends about 10 blocks west of Lake Michigan, its eastern border. Within this area, elevated trains run along a rectangular “loop” of tracks 5 blocks wide and 7 blocks long. These tracks give the central downtown area its nickname, the Loop. Trains travel between the Loop and many of the suburbs.
The heart of the Loop is the intersection of State and Madison streets. These two streets form the base lines of Chicago’s street-numbering system. Madison, which runs east and west, divides the north and south numbers. State, a north-south street, divides east and west numbers. State Street is also a famous shopping area. It includes Macy’s on State Street, originally the Marshall Field and Company department store, with its landmark clock that juts out above the pavement; and the original Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company Building, now called the Sullivan Center, which was designed by the noted architect Louis Sullivan.
Three blocks west of State Street is LaSalle Street, Chicago’s financial district. Along the street stand several major banks and the Chicago Stock Exchange (formerly the Midwest Stock Exchange). The City Hall-County Building and the striking, blue-tinted James R. Thompson Center (formerly called the State of Illinois Center) also face LaSalle Street.
Wacker Drive, a double-deck boulevard, follows the inside curve of the Chicago River and its south branch. Local traffic uses the upper, street-level deck, and express traffic uses the lower level. The drive connects with 17 of the 20 downtown bridges that cross the river. The Merchandise Mart, one of the world’s largest commercial buildings, stands across the river from Wacker Drive. The building, also known as the Mart or theMART, has more than 4 million square feet (370,000 square meters) of floor space. East of the Mart rises Marina City, two circular, 60-story apartment buildings.
A stunning group of modern office buildings in airy plazas lines South Wacker Drive and the river. The most impressive is the 110-story Willis Tower. It rises 1,450 feet (442 meters) and was once the tallest building in the world.
Two blocks east of State Street in the main downtown area is Michigan Avenue. Fashionable shops, hotels, and tall office buildings line its west side. Grant Park and an extension of Grant Park called Millennium Park lie between Michigan Avenue and the lake. Park attractions include an outdoor concert area; large-scale works of art including the stainless-steel sculpture nicknamed “The Bean”; Buckingham Memorial Fountain; the John G. Shedd Aquarium; the Field Museum; and the famous Art Institute of Chicago.
Beautiful Lake Shore Drive runs along the lakefront on Grant Park’s east side. It extends from downtown far into the North and South sides. Many modern high-rise apartment buildings have been built along the drive.
North of the Chicago River, Michigan Avenue forms the core of the northern downtown area. This area has been named the Magnificent Mile because of its many elegant stores, hotels, restaurants, and office buildings.
East of Michigan Avenue, Navy Pier juts out into Lake Michigan. It includes shops and restaurants, a Ferris wheel, a winter skating rink, and the Chicago Shakespeare Theater.
The Old Water Tower, a Chicago landmark, stands at Michigan and Chicago avenues. The little tower was one of the few structures in the area to survive the Great Chicago Fire. Across Michigan Avenue from the tower is Water Tower Place, a popular indoor shopping mall that also contains a hotel and apartments. The 100-story building at 875 North Michigan Avenue (formerly the John Hancock Center) rises one block north. It houses stores, offices, and about 700 condominiums.
The North Side
is mostly residential. It stretches from the downtown area north about 9 miles (14.5 kilometers) and northwest about 13 miles (21 kilometers).
The area just north of downtown is called the Near North Side. One famous Near North neighborhood is the Gold Coast, a luxurious residential area that begins at Oak Street. It extends about 10 blocks north along Lake Shore Drive and a few blocks west. The area is a blend of graceful old apartment buildings, Victorian mansions, and expensive skyscraper apartments.
Just west of the Gold Coast stands Carl Sandburg Village, a high-rise apartment complex. Sandburg Village has thousands of residents, many of them people who work downtown. Old Town includes the area west of Sandburg Village. It has many gift shops, nightclubs, restaurants, and renovated old homes.
Lincoln Park, Chicago’s largest and most popular park, begins north of the Gold Coast and marks the end of the Near North Side. The park stretches along almost two-thirds of the North Side lakefront and covers about 1,200 acres (490 hectares). It has beaches, lagoons, and a zoo. A long line of luxury apartment buildings overlooks Lincoln Park and extends along the lakeshore. The mid-North Side neighborhood of Lincoln Park, west of the park, was once old and shabby. Young professional people began to move into the area during the 1960’s and repair some of the old houses. Today, the Lincoln Park neighborhood features remodeled apartment buildings, new homes, shops, restaurants, and a number of small theaters.
Lakeview, north of the Lincoln Park neighborhood, is a lively residential and commercial neighborhood that includes Wrigley Field, home of baseball’s Chicago Cubs. Neighborhoods north of Lakeview include Uptown, Edgewater, and Rogers Park.
Much of the North Side consists largely of middle-class white neighborhoods with three- to six-unit brick apartment buildings and single-family brick bungalows. More expensive homes are in such neighborhoods as Ravenswood Manor, and in Edgebrook and Sauganash on the Far Northwest Side.
To many Chicagoans, the most famous North Side street is Milwaukee Avenue, which originated as a trail used by Native Americans, before the arrival of European settlers. It runs diagonally across the North Side, through such neighborhoods as Wicker Park, Bucktown, and Logan Square, and into the northwest suburbs. From the 1860’s until the 1940’s, many thousands of families from Poland settled along Milwaukee Avenue. As their fortunes improved, they moved to better homes on the Northwest Side. Many of the Polish food stores, bakeries, and restaurants remain and are popular with Chicagoans.
O’Hare International Airport, one of the world’s busiest airports, lies in the far northwest corner of the city. The John F. Kennedy Expressway cuts through the North Side and links O’Hare Airport with the Near Northwest Side, just northwest of the Loop.
The West Side
lies west of the Loop between Grand Avenue on the north and the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal on the south. 
One of the city’s chief industrial districts lies along the canal. This district has many factories, rail yards, truck-loading docks, and warehouses. Since the mid-1900’s, however, many leading employers on the West Side have moved their operations to more spacious sites in Chicago’s suburbs, taking thousands of jobs from the area.
Large sections of residential neighborhoods in the West Side include abandoned, decaying buildings. High crime rates and unemployment plague the residents of such communities as Austin, Garfield Park, and North Lawndale. In several areas, however, community groups have undertaken restorations of run-down apartment buildings and houses. The Garfield Park Conservatory, one of the nation’s largest indoor botanical gardens, is a source of community pride for residents of the West Side.
The Dwight D. Eisenhower Expressway cuts through the West Side between the Loop and the western suburbs. West of downtown, the expressway tunnels through a huge building once occupied by the main branch of the Chicago Post Office. The post office moved to a new building nearby in 1996. An office and retail space opened in the old post office complex in 2019. West of the post office complex, the Eisenhower Expressway passes the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and the Illinois Medical District. The district includes four major medical centers and a number of other health and human service institutions. It is one of the world’s largest concentrations of medical facilities. The University Village neighborhood, centered around the UIC campus, includes the city’s Little Italy section.
The medical district and the construction in the 1960’s of the university prompted growth in the eastern portion of the West Side. New apartment buildings and single-family houses were built. Old factories were converted into attractive offices and studios for artists.
The South Side
is Chicago’s biggest section in area and population. It stretches about 16 miles (26 kilometers) south of downtown and the West Side and covers more than half the city’s area. The South Side includes industrial areas, an international port, spacious parks, pleasant residential communities, and poverty-stricken neighborhoods. 
A large percentage of the South Siders are African Americans. Other ethnic groups include people of German, Hispanic, Irish, and Polish descent. Most Black and white people live in separate communities, though some communities are integrated.
Several large apartment buildings and rows of town houses near downtown have Black, white, Asian, and Hispanic residents. Many of these residents work in the Loop area, or nearby at the Illinois Institute of Technology or at Mercy Hospital and Medical Center. Hyde Park, the site of the University of Chicago, is an integrated community farther south along the lake. On the far southwest side, the communities of Morgan Park and Beverly have a mix of Black and white homeowners.
Many communities on the South Side, including Auburn Gresham, Chatham, and Englewood, have been deeply affected by poverty, unemployment, and crime. The Robert Taylor Homes, once Chicago’s biggest public housing project, covered about 15 blocks along South State Street and the Dan Ryan Expressway. The last of the development’s high-rise apartment buildings was demolished in 2007.
The South Side’s largest park is Burnham Park. It stretches south from Grant Park and covers 598 acres (242 hectares) along the lakefront. McCormick Place, one of the nation’s largest convention and exhibition center complexes, stands in the north end of Burnham Park. The park’s southern edge borders Jackson Park, which covers 543 acres (220 hectares) along the lake. About 12 blocks west of Jackson Park, Washington Park occupies 368 acres (149 hectares). 
The Chicago Skyway, an elevated toll road, crosses the industrial Far Southeast Side. The skyway runs from the Dan Ryan Expressway, the South Side’s major north-south route, to the Indiana border. On the way, it passes steel mills, oil refineries, warehouses, grain elevators, and huge stockpiles of iron ore and limestone. Cargo ships follow the nearby Calumet River inland from Lake Michigan to terminals along Lake Calumet, Chicago’s largest harbor.
The Far Southwest Side is one of Chicago’s newest communities. It has block after block of neat, single-family homes and only scattered industrial districts. Nearly all the residents are white people.
Two well-known Near Southwest Side neighborhoods are Chinatown and Bridgeport. Chinatown has a small residential section, restaurants, food stores, and gift shops. Bridgeport is a community of small bungalows. Many city employees and five Chicago mayors have lived there. The famous Union Stock Yards, which closed in 1971, lie southwest of Bridgeport. The huge stockyards, which once supplied meat to much of the nation, are now an industrial park.
Metropolitan area.
The U.S. Census Bureau defines the Chicago-Naperville-Schaumburg metropolitan division as five Illinois counties—Cook (which includes all of Chicago proper), DuPage, Grundy, McHenry, and Will counties. The metropolitan division has over 7 million people. About 5 million people live in Cook County, the second largest U.S. county in population after Los Angeles County. The metropolitan division covers 3,130 square miles (8,107 square kilometers).
The Census Bureau also defines a metropolitan statistical area called Chicago-Naperville-Elgin. It consists of the Chicago-Naperville-Schaumburg, Elgin, and Lake County metropolitan divisions in Illinois and the Lake County-Porter County-Jasper County metropolitan division in Indiana. This area has a population of about 9 1/2 million and covers 6,923 square miles (17,930 square kilometers).
The Chicago metropolitan area has changed dramatically since the 1940’s. The suburban population has grown rapidly, while that of Chicago proper has fallen. Many shopping centers, office buildings, and modern industrial complexes have been built in the suburbs.
Northwest Cook County has had the greatest growth. It has so many shopping centers, restaurants, and recreational facilities that many residents rarely visit downtown Chicago. Arlington Heights, the center of this area, grew from 5,700 people in 1940 to over 75,000 in 2020. Most of the area now covered by Schaumburg, Hoffman Estates, and Elk Grove Village was farmland in 1960. By 2020, these communities had a total of about 165,000 residents. In the 1980’s and 1990’s, striking growth followed the I-88 corridor to the west. High-tech business and research facilities there earned the area the nickname “Silicon Prairie.” Naperville, once a farming town, grew from 15,000 people in 1960 to 150,000 in 2020.
The old, elegant towns of Winnetka, Kenilworth, and Wilmette lie along the lake north of the city. Some suburbs have many Black and white residents. One of these suburbs is Park Forest, south of the city. This attractive community was built in the late 1940’s. A few towns in the far south metropolitan area have mostly African American residents. But only about 10 percent of the suburban people are African Americans.
People
Chicago has always been known as a city where industrious people could find good jobs. By the 1860’s, when Chicago was only 30 years old, its reputation was spreading throughout the poor farmlands and slums of Europe. Many thousands of European families moved to the booming prairie town, where they settled in separate sections. By the end of the 1800’s, the city consisted of many small communities that duplicated the language and customs of such countries as Germany, Italy, Poland, and Ireland.
Most of the old European ethnic communities have faded away. But they have left a rich heritage. Many Chicagoans enjoy visiting the city’s numerous ethnic restaurants, food stores, and gift shops. They also take pride in the impressive churches and charming blocks of homes constructed by the hard-working European immigrants who built the city.
Ethnic groups.
About 33 percent of the city’s people are African Americans, and about 30 percent are non-Hispanic white people. People of Hispanic descent—who may be white, Black, or of mixed ancestry—make up about 30 percent of the population. The expansion of Hispanic communities during the 1990’s accounted for a slight increase in the city’s total population, halting five decades of decline.
Hispanics make up Chicago’s largest and fastest-growing ethnic group. The city has about 820,000 Hispanics, an increase of over 300 percent since 1970. Most are Mexican Americans. Many others are Cubans or Puerto Ricans. The rest trace their ancestry to other Latin American countries or are of mixed Hispanic origin.
Black Americans make up Chicago’s second largest ethnic group, with about 800,000 people. Most live in neighborhoods where nearly all the residents are African American. These communities range from the attractive, treelined streets of Avalon Park and South Shore on the South Side to the crumbling slums of the West Side.
As in other cities in the United States, African Americans in Chicago have generally suffered from poverty, a lack of education, and discrimination in jobs and housing. However, Chicago also has many successful Black business and professional people. Many of them live in recently built downtown apartment buildings and on the Near North Side. Chicago has more than 10,300 Black-owned businesses. New York City and Los Angeles have more such businesses, but those in Chicago have the greatest total volume of sales.
Chicago’s other large ethnic groups include Poles, Germans, Irish, and Italians. Chicago’s Polish immigrants became known for budgeting their money and building homes—chiefly on the Northwest Side—as soon as they had saved enough. They founded some of the city’s most pleasant neighborhoods. Thousands of German and Scandinavian immigrants started farms outside the city. They founded a number of today’s prosperous suburbs. People of Irish descent have long been a major force in Chicago politics. Many government officials, judges, and police officers are of Irish descent.
Chicago also has many people of other ethnic backgrounds. These groups include Asian Indians, Chinese, English, Filipinos, Greeks, Koreans, Russians, Swedes, and Ukrainians.
Housing.
About 30 percent of all Chicago residents live in single-family houses, and about 30 percent live in buildings with two, three, or four apartments. Almost all of the rest live in large apartment buildings. Some areas, especially along the lake, have many high-rise apartment buildings. But most areas have a mixture of houses—chiefly bungalows—and small apartment buildings.
Although Chicago has many pleasant residential areas, housing is one of its worst problems. About three-fifths of the city’s occupied housing units were built prior to 1960. In low-income neighborhoods, numerous buildings have been overcrowded and poorly maintained for many years. Many other buildings are unusable and have been abandoned by their owners. The Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) maintains tens of thousands of homes for low- and moderate-income people. The CHA is a government agency whose board is appointed by Chicago’s mayor. It is funded mainly by the federal government. Many of its early dwellings were part of crowded high-rise projects. In the first two decades of the 2000’s, the CHA completed a redevelopment project in which many of the high-rise buildings were demolished and replaced with new mixed-income developments. In addition, a number of existing low-rise family developments were restored.
Education.
Chicago has the third largest public school system in the United States, with more than 600 schools and 350,000 students. The figures also include a number of charter schools. Only New York City and Los Angeles have larger systems.
A seven-member Board of Education governs Chicago’s public school system. The mayor appoints the members. A local council has authority in each public school. Each council includes the principal and 11 elected members. The elected members include six parents who have children in the school, two community members without children in the school, two of the school’s teachers, and one nonteaching staff member. High school councils also include one student member who is elected by the school’s students. The councils—established in 1989—have the authority to approve budgets, change curriculums, and hire or fire principals. Tens of thousands of Chicago students attend Roman Catholic schools, and many other students go to independent private schools.
Chicago’s largest institution of higher education is the University of Illinois at Chicago, with more than 30,000 students. Two other state universities—Chicago State and Northeastern Illinois—are also in the city. Well-known private schools include the University of Chicago, Roosevelt University, and two Catholic institutions—DePaul University and Loyola University Chicago. Northwestern University in suburban Evanston has a downtown Chicago campus, where several of its graduate professional schools are located. The Chicago area has six medical schools and is one of the world’s leading centers of medical education and research. Several Chicago institutions have branches in the suburbs, where there are also a number of small private colleges.
Other educational institutions in Chicago include Columbia College, the Illinois Institute of Technology, National Louis University, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Institute for Clinical Social Work, and several business and law schools. The City Colleges of Chicago, which include seven public community colleges, make up one of the nation’s largest community college systems.
Sports and recreation.
Chicagoans enthusiastically support spectator sports, and professional teams represent Chicago in all major U.S. sports. The city has two major league baseball teams, the Chicago Cubs of the National League and the Chicago White Sox of the American League. It is also the home of the Chicago Blackhawks of the National Hockey League, the Chicago Bulls of the National Basketball Association, Chicago Fire FC of Major League Soccer, and the Chicago Bears of the National Football League.
Chicago has hundreds of parks and playgrounds. The lakefront parkland, which covers about 3,000 acres (1,200 hectares), becomes a huge playground in warm weather. This parkland has beaches, bicycle paths, golf courses, soccer fields, softball diamonds, and tennis courts. It also has several harbors for the thousands of boats that cruise up and down the shoreline in summer.
The Cook County Forest Preserves dot Chicago’s outskirts and suburban areas. They have picnic grounds, golf courses, bridle paths, swimming pools, and nature museums.
Social problems.
The chief social problems in Chicago, as in most other large U.S. cities, involve poverty and racial discrimination. Chicago’s African Americans and Hispanics carry most of the burden of poverty. For example, about a third of all Chicago Black families have an annual income below the level considered the “poverty line” by the federal government. The unemployment rate for Chicago’s Black residents is often twice the city’s overall rate.
Family breakdown, crime, and inadequate health care also contribute to poverty in the city. Most of Chicago’s poor families are headed by single mothers, and many of these households receive some form of public aid. People in Black neighborhoods are much more likely to be the victims of a violent crime than people in white areas.
Cultural life and places to visit
Chicago ranks among the greatest cultural centers of the United States. Its cultural life and many other features help attract millions of tourists every year. In addition, millions of people visit Chicago annually for business meetings, conventions, and trade shows.
The arts.
The world-famous Chicago Symphony Orchestra performs in Orchestra Hall on Michigan Avenue at the Symphony Center beginning each September. In summer, the orchestra plays outdoors at Ravinia Park in north suburban Highland Park. From late June to the end of August, the Grant Park Orchestra presents free concerts in the outdoor band shell in Millennium Park, the northwest corner of Grant Park.
The Lyric Opera Company of Chicago has an annual fall and winter season in the Civic Opera House on Wacker Drive. The company brings the world’s leading opera singers to Chicago. Visiting dance companies, orchestras, and concert stars also perform in the Opera House and in the Auditorium Theatre on Congress Parkway. This theater was designed during the 1880’s by the noted architects Louis Sullivan and Dankmar Adler. In 1995, the famed Joffrey Ballet moved from New York to Chicago.
Chicago city and suburban theaters present a wide range of plays, including popular Broadway shows; classics; experimental and other new works; and plays for children. Nationally known Chicago theaters include the Goodman downtown; the Steppenwolf in the Lincoln Park area; and the Court in Hyde Park on the South Side. The Lincoln Park area is the home of the nationally known Second City comedy club.
Architecture.
Chicago has dominated American architecture since the late 1800’s. New styles and new construction techniques have first appeared in Chicago and then spread to other cities. Designers and engineers from around the world visit Chicago to study its spectacular buildings.
The city’s tradition of architectural pioneering began after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 destroyed much of the city. Outstanding architects, including William Le Baron Jenney, Daniel H. Burnham, and Louis Sullivan, helped to rebuild Chicago. Their work produced a famous style of architecture that is known as the Chicago School.
The great development of the Chicago School was the skyscraper. Architects stripped away the heavy walls of stone and brick that had supported tall buildings. Instead, they designed structures with steel skeletons, which allowed buildings to soar to great heights and yet look light and graceful.
Jenney designed the 10-story Home Insurance Building, often considered the world’s first metal-framed skyscraper. Built in downtown Chicago, it was completed in 1885. But this building and some other masterpieces of the Chicago School have been demolished. Many other examples of this type of architecture still stand, however. One of these structures is the Reliance Building, designed by Burnham and John W. Root, at State and Washington streets. Another is Jenney’s Sears, Roebuck and Co. store (now an office and retail building called One Congress Center) at State and Van Buren. A third Chicago School masterpiece is the Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company Building, designed by Sullivan. Now called the Sullivan Center, it curves gracefully around a corner at State and Madison streets. All three of these structures were built in the 1890’s.
During the 1920’s, downtown Chicago experienced a building boom that resulted in a canyonlike LaSalle Street financial district. During the 1940’s, the German architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, master of the glass-and-steel style, began a second generation of the Chicago School. His Chicago masterpieces include buildings at the Illinois Institute of Technology and apartments on Lake Shore Drive near Chicago Avenue. Other Chicago structures that reflect the influence of Mies include the Richard J. Daley Center, the tower at 875 North Michigan Avenue (formerly the John Hancock Center), and McCormick Place.
Frank Lloyd Wright, who developed the Prairie School of architecture, moved to Chicago in the 1880’s. He created houses and other buildings that were long, low, and fluid—like the sweep of the Midwestern prairie. Many of Wright’s works are in west suburban Oak Park, where his own home and studio still stand. His best-known design in the city is Robie House. This house was built in 1909 and is in the University of Chicago area.
Museums.
Several of Chicago’s finest museums stand in Grant Park. On the park’s south end, the Field Museum exhibits mounted animals, life-sized displays of prehistoric people, and dinosaur skeletons. Across from the Field Museum, the John G. Shedd Aquarium has tens of thousands of fish and other water animals. Nearby, the Adler Planetarium depicts the movements of heavenly bodies in its domed theater. The Art Institute of Chicago, on Grant Park’s north end, is famous for its collection of French Impressionist art. The museum also has fine galleries of primitive art and Asian art. 
Several museums can be found outside of downtown. These include the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and the Museum of Broadcast Communications on the Near North Side. The Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures and the Smart Museum of Art are on the University of Chicago campus in Hyde Park. The huge Kenneth C. Griffin Museum of Science and Industry, one of Chicago’s best-known institutions, stands in Jackson Park. Its displays include a space center, a working coal mine, a World War II German submarine, and many exhibits that relate to chemistry and physics.
The Chicago History Museum, in Lincoln Park, traces local history from the end of the ice ages to the present. On the South Side, the DuSable Museum of African American History is named after Chicago’s first known settler, Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, a Black man. On the West Side, the National Museum of Mexican Art in the Pilsen neighborhood features works by Mexican artists. Chicago has a number of other museums devoted to its different ethnic groups, including the Chinese-American Museum of Chicago in the Chinatown neighborhood and the National Hellenic Museum in Greektown. The Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center in the Chicago suburb of Skokie tells the story of the millions of Jews and others murdered by the Nazis in the 1930’s and 1940’s.
Libraries.
The Chicago Public Library is one of the nation’s largest public libraries. It has millions of books, periodicals, DVD’s, CD’s, and online databases. The library has dozens of branches throughout the city. The Great Chicago Fire destroyed the main library downtown in 1871. But the library was restarted the following year when the British people donated 8,000 books to the city. The main public library branch is south of the Loop. It was named the Harold Washington Library Center in honor of Chicago’s first African American mayor.
Many private libraries in Chicago specialize in particular subjects, such as history or science. On the Near North Side is the Newberry Library, one of the nation’s leading historical research libraries. The John Crerar Library at the University of Chicago has fine collections on science and technology. The Art Institute of Chicago maintains extensive materials on art and architecture in its Ryerson and Burnham Libraries. The Chicago History Museum has fine materials on Chicago history.
Places to visit.
Following are descriptions of a few of Chicago’s many interesting places to visit. Others are discussed earlier in this article.
Brookfield Zoo,
in west suburban Brookfield, covers about 200 acres (81 hectares) and exhibits animals in natural settings. Its Seven Seas exhibit has a dolphin show, and the children’s zoo features a variety of baby animals.
Buckingham Memorial Fountain,
in Grant Park, is one of the world’s largest lighted fountains. It operates daily from May to mid-October. It contains about 11/2 million gallons (5.7 million liters) of water and shoots its central spout about 150 feet (45 meters) in the air. Colorful lights illuminate the fountain each evening. 
Chicago Board of Trade Building,
at LaSalle and Jackson streets, houses a commodity exchange that forms a part of the CME Group. At the exchange, hundreds of brokers buy and sell farm products, metals, and foreign currencies for future delivery. Visitors may watch from a gallery.
Chicago Riverwalk,
along the Chicago River downtown, provides water-level views of the city’s architecture and wildlife. The Riverwalk includes public seating, parkland, and restaurants along more than a mile (1.6 kilometers) of pedestrian pathways.
Dearborn Street plazas,
along downtown Dearborn Street, display magnificent works of art. A five-story sculpture by the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso stands in Richard J. Daley Plaza. Some people think the work is a likeness of the artist’s pet Afghan hound. Others think the gigantic sculpture resembles a woman’s head. Alexander Calder, an American artist, designed Flamingo (1974), a tall, red metal sculpture in the Federal Center Plaza. Some people think it resembles a drooping flower. The Russian-born artist Marc Chagall created The Four Seasons (1974), a huge mosaic at Dearborn and Monroe streets. 
Millennium Park,
the northwest corner of Grant Park, is the site of the Pritzker Pavilion, a band shell designed by the American architect Frank Gehry. The park also includes an ice-skating rink, a fountain, a garden, and the sculpture nicknamed “The Bean”—officially titled Cloud Gate (2004)—by the Indian-born artist Anish Kapoor.
Willis Tower,
110 stories high on Wacker Drive, is one of the tallest buildings in the United States. A public observation deck on the 103rd floor gives a spectacular view of Chicago and the Lake Michigan shoreline.
Economy
The Chicago metropolitan area ranks among the leading industrial centers of the United States. Chicago is the nation’s leading transportation hub. In addition, Chicago serves as the financial capital of the Midwest.
Millions of people work in the Chicago metropolitan area. The number of jobs has grown rapidly since the mid-1900’s. But the growth has been in Chicago’s suburbs, not in the city itself. In 1950, for example, about 80 percent of all the jobs in the metropolitan area were in the city. Today, only about 30 percent are in Chicago. The large expanses of open land, the relatively low taxes and crime rate, and the ever-increasing population have attracted businesses and industries to the suburbs. Many firms moved to the suburbs from Chicago. Others came from outside Illinois to build headquarters, branch offices, or research plants.
Service industries
employ about five-sixths of the workers in the Chicago area. Numerous service industries workers in the Chicago area work in the trade, hotels, and restaurants sector. Many others are employed in community, social, and personal services. This category includes doctors, lawyers, and private-school teachers. Service industries workers also include people employed in government; finance, insurance, and real estate; and communications and transportation. Many service industries are discussed after the Industry section.
Industry.
This sector, which includes manufacturing, construction, mining, and utilities, employs about one-sixth of all workers in the Chicago metropolitan area. The area has thousands of industrial plants and is one of the nation’s top producers of food products and fabricated metals. It is a leading U.S. producer of chemicals, electrical and electronic products, machinery, and iron and steel. It is also a major center of the construction industry.
The Chicago area is one of the nation’s chief industrial research centers. Its industries operate hundreds of research laboratories. Chicago has been a leader in atomic research ever since the Italian physicist Enrico Fermi produced the world’s first nuclear chain reaction at the University of Chicago in 1942. Argonne National Laboratory in suburban Lemont has pioneered in the development of nuclear reactors for electric power production. Over half of the electric power in the Chicago area and surrounding regions of northern Illinois comes from nuclear power plants. No other area in the United States uses as much nuclear power. The Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, which houses one of the world’s largest particle accelerators, is in suburban Batavia (see Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory). 
Chicago was once the world’s leading meat-packing center. The poet Carl Sandburg called the city the “Hog Butcher for the World.” The city’s famous Union Stock Yards processed about 18 million head of livestock yearly. But the yards began to decline in the 1950’s with the growth of regional livestock centers, and the Union Stock Yards closed in 1971.
Trade.
Chicago is one of the busiest ports in the United States. It is the only place in North America where the Great Lakes connect with the huge Mississippi River system. Chicago became a seaport in 1959 upon the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway. This inland waterway links the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean. Cargo ships sail to and from Chicago through the seaway and four of the Great Lakes—Ontario, Erie, Huron, and Michigan. The city’s port handles millions of tons of manufactured goods, raw materials, and produce every year.
Many terminals in the area receive cargo ships and barges. Major facilities on the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal and the Chicago River load and unload large amounts of steel, crushed stone, salt, and other products. Facilities on the Illinois River handle shipments of chemicals, coal, grain, and fertilizer. Terminals on Lake Calumet and the Calumet River have huge grain elevators that bulge with wheat and other grains every spring. Ice closes the St. Lawrence Seaway in winter. But early in April, after the ice has thawed, ships from dozens of countries arrive at the Calumet terminals to pick up Midwest grain and carry it to ports throughout the world.
Chicago is a busy port for river barges as well as for oceangoing ships. The barges use the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, which connects with the Mississippi River system. This system links Chicago with the Gulf of Mexico and with ports as far east as Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and as far west as Omaha, Nebraska.
The Chicago area also ranks as one of the nation’s leading wholesale and retail trading centers. Thousands of wholesale and retail companies operate in the area.
Finance.
Chicago is the financial capital of the Midwest. The NYSE (New York Stock Exchange) Chicago (formerly the Chicago Stock Exchange) ranks as one of the largest U.S. stock exchanges. The Seventh Federal Reserve District Bank has its headquarters in Chicago. Chicago is also home to several large commercial banking firms. 
The Chicago Board of Trade, founded in 1848, was the oldest financial exchange in the United States. The Chicago Mercantile Exchange, also known as CME, dated from 1919. In 2007, these exchanges merged into the CME Group. The CME Group accounts for most of the nation’s futures contracts. These contracts are agreements between buyers and sellers that arrange for a certain quantity of a product to be delivered at a specified price and date. Futures contracts may involve such commodities as grain, cattle, eggs, crude petroleum, foreign currencies, and U.S. Treasury bonds.
Transportation.
Chicago is the nation’s biggest transportation center. In no other area of the country do the railroad yards or trucking firms handle as much freight. These yards and firms transport hundreds of millions of tons of freight each year. 
Two airports serve the city. O’Hare International Airport, which lies in the northwest corner of Chicago, is one of the busiest airports in the world. In addition to the millions of passengers that pass through the airport, cargo planes carry a large volume of freight through O’Hare. For the numbers of passengers and aircraft that pass through O’Hare each year, see Airport (table: World’s 25 busiest airports).
Midway International Airport, on the South Side, once ranked as the world’s busiest. But it was unable to handle large jet airplanes and the volume of traffic in the Chicago area. By 1970, O’Hare had taken nearly all of its business. In the late 1900’s and early 2000’s, however, Midway increased its business with flights of smaller jets.
Smaller airports operate in suburban areas of Chicago. Aurora Municipal Airport is southwest of the city. DuPage Airport lies to the west. Chicago Executive Airport and Waukegan National Airport are north of the city.
Over 1,000 passenger trains once passed through Chicago’s downtown depots. Today, the city remains a major hub for dozens of Amtrak trains that use Union Station. Chicago is also a major connecting point for commercial buses.
Three major expressways stretch from an interchange near the downtown area through the city and suburbs. The John F. Kennedy Expressway extends northwest, the Dwight D. Eisenhower Expressway runs west, and the Dan Ryan Expressway stretches south. In addition, the Edens Expressway extends from the Kennedy Expressway through the north suburbs, and the Adlai E. Stevenson Expressway runs southwest from Lake Shore Drive.
The publicly owned Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) operates bus lines in the city. It also operates elevated, subway, and ground-level trains in the city and some suburbs. In 1974, Chicago area residents voted to establish a Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) to operate a public transportation system for the area. The CTA became part of the RTA, as did the regional commuter railroads that serve the city. The Pace suburban bus system is also a part of the RTA. 
Communications.
Chicago has two general daily newspapers. They are the Chicago Sun-Times and the Chicago Tribune. The Chicago area also has dozens of foreign-language newspapers and neighborhood and suburban newspapers. The Chicago Defender, directed chiefly at African American readers, was printed from 1905 to 2019. The Defender, like many area newspapers, maintains a presence online.
Several national magazines are published in Chicago. Other national magazines and nationally circulated newspapers have branch offices in the city. Chicago also ranks as a leading center of the advertising and book-publishing industries.
Chicago has several commercial television stations. It also has a nonprofit TV station associated with the national Public Broadcasting Service. The city has dozens of radio stations, several of which feature foreign-language broadcasts. It also has a nonprofit radio station associated with National Public Radio.
Government
Chicago’s government is headed by a mayor and a City Council, which consists of an alderman from each of the city’s 50 wards. The voters elect the mayor and the aldermen, as well as a city treasurer and a city clerk, to four-year terms. The mayor appoints the other top officials, including city department heads, the police commissioner, and the fire commissioner.
Unlike most other large U.S. cities, Chicago has a weak-mayor, strong-council form of government. Chicago’s mayor must obtain the City Council’s approval on many important decisions and on most appointments. Also, some services provided by city governments in other cities are provided by the state and county governments in Chicago. The state, for example, administers most of Chicago’s welfare services. Several other important government functions are administered by separate government units, such as the Chicago Park District and the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District.
In spite of the weak-mayor system, Chicago had the most powerful mayor of any major United States city during the third quarter of the 1900’s, Richard J. Daley. For details on Daley’s power and role as mayor, see Political developments in the late 1900’s in the History section of this article.
Chicago receives revenue from taxes on real estate, utilities, motor vehicles, and sales. Additional sources of revenue include a share of state income and sales taxes and grants from the federal government.
History
Native Americans lived in the Chicago area more than 5,000 years ago. During the 1600’s, when the first white people arrived, the Potawatomi lived near the Chicago River, which they called the Checagou. The name Chicago comes from that word. The Potawatomi hunted buffalo, deer, and other wildlife. They raised such crops as corn, squash, and pumpkins. They also traded with nearby tribes by traveling the many trails that fanned out from the mouth of the Chicago River.
The river itself was part of another well-traveled route through the area. The Potawatomi paddled canoes down the river to a muddy portage (overland route) that led to the Des Plaines River. They then carried their canoes over the portage and followed the Des Plaines to the Illinois River. The Illinois connected with the mighty Mississippi River. The Potawatomi were peaceful and prosperous. When the first white people arrived, the friendly Potawatomi greeted them warmly.
Exploration and early settlement.
The first white people to reach the Chicago area were probably the French-Canadian explorer Louis Jolliet and a French Jesuit priest named Jacques Marquette. They arrived at the portage in 1673 on their way north to Canada. During the next 25 years, French fur traders and missionaries frequently used the portage. But then the native Fox people to the south closed the route to the portage to white people. As a result, little is known about life in the Chicago area from about 1700 to the 1770’s.
In the late 1770’s, a prosperous fur trader of mixed French and Dominican heritage arrived in the region. He was Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, who established a trading post on the north bank of the Chicago River mouth. His business prospered until his retirement and departure from the region in 1800.
Territory struggles.
By the late 1700’s, the westward expansion of settlement into what is now the Midwest touched off decades of warfare between the American military and indigenous (native) peoples, though relations in the Chicago area were peaceful. In 1803, the U.S. government built Fort Dearborn, its westernmost post. Soon a small settlement of traders and farmers had formed around the fort.
After the War of 1812 began between the Americans and the British, the United States government feared that unrest among the Native Americans might lead to violence against the outpost, which would be difficult to defend. On Aug. 15, 1812, about 100 soldiers and settlers left the fort and headed southeast for Fort Wayne in Indiana. They had traveled only about 2 miles when a raiding party of Potawatomi and their allies attacked. Half of the evacuees were killed, and the others were captured. The Potawatomi force burned Fort Dearborn. The Chicago area remained unsettled until 1816, when American soldiers rebuilt the fort.
Birth of the city.
In 1816, several survivors of the attack who were released by the Potawatomi returned to Chicago. Other settlers also moved to the area, and a new community grew up around rebuilt Fort Dearborn. When Illinois became a state in 1818, the Chicago settlement was included within its boundaries. By 1833, Chicago’s population had grown to more than 150—large enough to be incorporated as a town.
In 1834 and 1835, U.S. government agents forced the Potawatomi and neighboring Native American nations to sell their land. In payment, the Native Americans received a small sum of money and territory west of the Mississippi. More than 3,000 Native Americans left their homeland for reservations in Kansas. After their departure, the town of Chicago boomed. It grew to about 4,000 people by 1837. On March 4, 1837, Chicago was incorporated as a city.
Growth as a city.
From 1836 to 1848, workers built the Illinois and Michigan Canal. It stretched 96 miles (154 kilometers) from the Chicago River across the old portage to La Salle on the Illinois River. Chicago was thus linked with the Mississippi River system. Transportation soon became the city’s major industry. But the canal played only a secondary role.
Chicago’s most spectacular achievement from 1848 to 1856 was the growth of its railroads. The city’s first railroad, the Galena and Chicago Union, began operation in 1848. By 1856, Chicago had become the hub of 10 main railroad lines with about 3,000 miles (4,800 kilometers) of track. Nearly 100 trains arrived or departed daily. The city had become the world’s busiest rail center. It had also become the biggest city in Illinois, with a population of over 100,000.
Chicago boomed during the American Civil War (1861-1865). Cattle from the West streamed into Chicago’s stockyards, and the huge Union Stock Yards were completed in 1865. The grain trade thrived, making the Chicago Board of Trade the nation’s most important grain market. The city’s manufacturing industries also grew rapidly.
After the war, immigrants from Ireland, Germany, and the Scandinavian countries poured into Chicago. Crowded neighborhoods of factory workers living in small wooden cottages sprouted around the city. And Chicago continued to prosper. By 1870, it was the world’s largest grain, livestock, and lumber market. Its population had grown to nearly 300,000.
As the world’s lumber capital, Chicago was fittingly built almost entirely of wood. Houses, churches, stores, grain elevators, factories, and even streets were nearly all made of wood.
The Great Chicago Fire.
The summer of 1871 was unusually dry in Chicago. Only about one-fourth of the normal amount of rain fell between July and October. With all its wooden buildings, Chicago was like kindling. Then on the evening of Oct. 8, 1871, a fire started on the Southwest Side of the city. 
Historians believe the fire started in a barn owned by Catherine O’Leary. According to legend, a cow kicked over a lighted lantern in the barn. Fanned by strong winds, the flames raced north and east through the city. They leaped across the river and chased panic-stricken families fleeing north toward Lincoln Park. Hundreds of other families fled into the chilly waters of the lake. The fire raged for more than 24 hours. It wiped out the downtown area and most North Side homes. It killed at least 300 people and left 90,000 homeless. The fire also destroyed millions of dollars worth of property.
A city reborn.
Chicago rose from the ruins of the fire and became one of the world’s great cities. The opportunity to rebuild Chicago attracted many of the nation’s finest architects, such as William Le Baron Jenney, Louis Sullivan, Daniel H. Burnham, John W. Root, and the German-born Dankmar Adler. The 10-story Home Insurance Building, often considered the world’s first metal-framed skyscraper, was erected in Chicago. The structure, designed by Jenney, was completed in 1885. Chicago became the nation’s architectural capital.
Chicago’s industry skyrocketed along with its buildings. More and more workers, many of them immigrants, crowded into the city. Many lived in hurriedly constructed, barrackslike housing. Much of it quickly turned into slums. Working conditions were also miserable. The factory workers protested, and a wave of strikes erupted. In 1877, Chicago was the center of a violent national railroad strike. In 1886, a riot developed after a bomb exploded during a workers’ rally at Haymarket Square, a produce center west of downtown. At least seven policemen and one civilian died. See Haymarket Riot.
Many in Chicago began to escape the problems of the city by moving to the suburbs. Others tried to aid the suffering poor. In 1889, Hull House, one of the first settlement houses in the United States, opened in Chicago. Jane Addams and Ellen Starr founded it to help immigrant workers adjust to life in the city. See Hull House. 
By 1890, Chicago had become the second largest city in the United States. Only New York City had more people. More than a million people lived in Chicago. Nearly 80 percent of them were European immigrants or the children of immigrants.
In 1893, the World’s Columbian Exposition opened in Jackson Park. This elaborate fair observed the 400th anniversary of the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the New World. But Chicago also staged the fair to draw attention to the city’s accomplishments. The fair’s chief architect was Daniel H. Burnham. He produced a comprehensive Plan of Chicago in 1909. His dream of a lakefront protected by artificial islands was only partly realized.
Chicagoans bragged so much about the Columbian Exposition that Charles A. Dana, a New York City newspaper editor, made the Windy City a popular nickname for Chicago. The howling gusts that blow across the city from Lake Michigan have helped make the nickname last. In the 1950’s, Chicago received the nickname Second City because it ranked second to New York City in population and other areas.
The Columbian Exposition also attracted the first of many talented writers who would be drawn to the city in the years before 1920. These included poets Carl Sandburg and Edgar Lee Masters and the writers Hamlin Garland, Theodore Dreiser, and Sherwood Anderson. Harriet Monroe founded Poetry, the first magazine devoted entirely to verse. Chicago hosted experimental theater and was home to a thriving movie industry.
Tragedy and racial conflict.
The years of civic pride that began with the Columbian Exposition were marred by tragedy. In 1903, a fire in the Iroquois Theater took 602 lives. In 1915, the tour boat Eastland sank in the Chicago River, and nearly 850 people died. 
During World War I (1914-1918), Chicago’s industries expanded to meet wartime needs. Thousands of African Americans from the South moved to Chicago to work in its war industries. Prevented from living in most sections of the city, they crowded into an old run-down area on the South Side. On July 27, 1919, a Black youth swimming off the 27th Street beach drifted into waters opposite an unofficially “whites only” part of the beach. When he tried to swim ashore, white beachgoers stoned him and he drowned. The incident started the biggest race riot in Chicago history. It raged for four days and left 23 Black people and 15 white people dead. More than 500 other people were injured, and about 1,000 homes were burned.
The Roaring Twenties
were years of prosperity that saw working-class families build more than 125,000 bungalow houses. Railroad suburbs expanded greatly. But the decade also produced violence that would stain the city’s reputation for many years to come.
The 18th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which went into effect in 1920, prohibited the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages. But many people drank illegally in clubs called speakeasies. Gangsters in Chicago, including Al Capone, took over the illegal distribution of liquor, a practice called bootlegging. Various gangs fought for control of bootlegging, gambling, and other illegal activities. Gangland murders became common. The violence reached its peak in the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre of 1929. Four gangsters, some disguised as policemen, shot down several members of a rival gang.
But the Roaring Twenties were also creative years. The great trumpeter Louis Armstrong and other jazz musicians came from New Orleans. The jazz clarinetist Benny Goodman, who learned to play in Hull House, formed his first band in Chicago. The first of the great blues musicians, who would give voice to the Great Depression, arrived just as the economy was beginning to weaken.
Ending a century of progress.
The Great Depression of the 1930’s brought business failure and unemployment to Chicago. In spite of these problems, the city opened the Century of Progress Exposition in 1933. Chicago staged the gigantic fair to celebrate the 100th anniversary of its incorporation as a town. The exposition, held on the lakefront, featured outstanding exhibits of science and industry. It brought business to the city during the depths of the depression.
The mid-1900’s.
During World War II (1939-1945), Chicago became the site of one of the most important events in world history. On Dec. 2, 1942, the first nuclear chain reaction was set off at the University of Chicago. It led to the development of the atomic bomb and of nuclear energy for peaceful uses.
Many giant public construction projects were started in Chicago after the war, and the civic building boom continued into the early 1970’s. New projects included four expressways, two huge water filtration plants, the McCormick Place convention and exposition center, O’Hare Airport, and the Richard J. Daley Civic Center. Urban renewal replaced huge slum areas with a mixture of roads, public housing, and middle-income apartments.
A building boom also took place in the downtown area and along the North Side lakefront. The John Hancock Center (now 875 North Michigan Avenue), the First National Bank Building (now Chase Tower), the Sears Tower (now the Willis Tower), the Standard Oil Building (now the Aon Center), and many apartment buildings were erected.
While the downtown area boomed with new construction in the 1960’s, many neighborhoods faltered when their residents’ paychecks disappeared. Once a leader in virtually every industrial category, Chicago lost thousands of jobs to foreign competition. Many factories moved to areas where land was cheaper. Many workers, who also sought less crime and better schools, left the city. Chicago was left with an increasing proportion of poorly skilled and poorly educated people. Most of these people were minorities who had been attracted by the prospect of work that no longer existed.
The response to these and earlier changes took several forms. From the 1930’s to the 1970’s, for example, Chicago writers focused on the troubles of everyday people. Writers who gained fame include novelists Nelson Algren, Saul Bellow, James T. Farrell, and Richard Wright; journalists Mike Royko and Studs Terkel; and poet Gwendolyn Brooks.
In the late 1960’s, frustration over segregation and the Vietnam War turned to violence. In April 1968, riots broke out on the West Side following the assassination of the Black civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. Eleven people were killed, and damage was estimated at $10 million. After the riots, some efforts were begun to improve housing and health services for poor families. But the great difference in income levels and living conditions between most Black and most white people remained. The 1968 Democratic National Convention was held in Chicago in August. During the convention, clashes between Vietnam War protesters and police focused national attention on the city.
Political developments in the late 1900’s.
From 1931 to 1979, Chicago was ruled by the Cook County Democratic Organization. The organization was started during the Great Depression by Mayor Anton Cermak and was continued by mayors Edward Kelly, who served from 1933 to 1947, and Martin Kennelly, who served from 1947 to 1955. The organization reached its peak of power under Richard J. Daley, who became its chair in 1953. Elected to the first of his six mayoral terms in 1955, Daley used both offices to control who ran on the Democratic ticket and who was elected to the City Council. As head of such a powerful urban political machine, Daley earned the title “last of the big-city bosses.”
The organization quickly declined after Daley’s death in 1976. A series of federal court decisions and a number of union contracts protecting city employees reduced the mayor’s power to hire and fire. Many aldermen no longer felt they had to take direction from Daley’s successor, Michael Bilandic.
In 1979, Jane M. Byrne, a former city official and protege of Daley’s, became the first woman mayor of Chicago. Byrne received 82 percent of the vote—the highest percentage ever won in a Chicago mayoral election. But Byrne would serve only one term.
In the 1983 mayoral primary, African American community leaders organized a massive voter registration drive and campaign effort that gave the Democratic nomination to Harold Washington, a member of the United States House of Representatives. Washington narrowly defeated his Republican opponent and became Chicago’s first Black mayor. The voters reelected Washington in April 1987, but he died of a heart attack in November of that year. The City Council then elected Eugene Sawyer, a Black council member, acting mayor.
In 1989, special elections were held to fill out Washington’s term. Richard M. Daley, a son of former mayor Richard J. Daley, defeated Sawyer for the Democratic nomination. In the general election, Daley defeated the Republican nominee and a third-party candidate. Daley was reelected in the regular mayoral elections in 1991, 1995, 1999, 2003, and 2007. He chose not to run in 2011.
Dealing with aging infrastructure.
Like all cities, Chicago has had to face the issue of upgrading the older parts of its infrastructure, including buildings and transportation systems. In April 1992, millions of gallons of water from the Chicago River poured through a hole in the wall of a 90-year-old freight tunnel system under the Loop. The flooding caused millions of dollars of damage to basements. However, the event drew attention to the potential of the tunnels for housing telecommunications lines.
Other developments were more gradual. The Chicago Housing Authority replaced thousands of decaying high-rise public housing units with units in smaller buildings in mixed-income developments. The Chicago Transit Authority also upgraded, replaced, or extended miles of aging elevated and subway lines. In 1993, the CTA added a new line to Midway International Airport. The Chicago Public Schools system rebuilt or remodeled hundreds of buildings as part of an effort to upgrade the learning environment of its pupils.
In the private sector, thousands of older apartment buildings have been renovated, and hundreds of old factory buildings have been razed or converted to residential lofts. Many renovated factory buildings hold new companies that are part of Chicago’s successful transition from manufacturing to a new service economy based on research, corporate administration, and the convention and tourism business.
New construction.
Despite Chicago’s problems, various developments continue to keep it an appealing, lively, and economically strong city. In 1991, the Harold Washington Library Center was completed at the south end of downtown. In the early 1990’s, two modern middle-class residential sections—Printer’s Row and Dearborn Park—were completed nearby. The northern downtown area experienced much development following the completion of the Water Tower Place shopping mall in 1976. The mall complex, which includes a hotel and apartments, led to the establishment of other retail businesses and hotels in the area. From the mid-1970’s through the early 2000’s, more than 100 other major building projects altered the skyline. Notable projects included Millennium Park, which opened in 2004; the Trump International Hotel & Tower, completed in 2009; and the St. Regis Chicago, which opened in 2020.
Recent developments.
In February 2011, Chicago voters elected Rahm Emanuel mayor. Emanuel, a former U.S. representative and chief of staff to President Barack Obama, succeeded Mayor Daley in May. In April 2015, Emanuel won a second term as mayor by defeating Cook County Commissioner Jesús “Chuy” Garcia in a runoff election.
In 2015, President Obama designated the Pullman Historic District a national monument to be operated by the National Park Service. The district, south of downtown, was the site of significant events in the railroad industry and the labor and civil rights movements.
In November 2015, protesters spoke out against efforts by city leaders to suppress a video showing a white police officer killing an African American teenage burglary suspect in 2014. In December 2015, Emanuel asked Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy to resign following the court-ordered release of the video. Emanuel also announced the creation of a task force to review police procedures and recommend ways to rebuild trust with the city’s minority communities. In 2018, a Chicago jury found the police officer guilty of second-degree (intentional but not premeditated) murder.
Former federal prosecutor Lori Lightfoot won election to succeed Emanuel as mayor in 2019. Lightfoot became the first African American woman and the first openly gay person to hold the office. Community activist and former teacher Brandon Johnson was elected to succeed Lightfoot in 2023.
Chicago faced historic social and economic disruptions as it struggled to contain the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021. The city also experienced civil unrest amid demonstrations against racial injustice. In March 2020, business activity and public gatherings were severely restricted in efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19. In late May and early June, a number of initially peaceful demonstrations protesting the deaths of George Floyd and other Black Americans at the hands of police officers turned violent and destructive. Mass looting took place in downtown shopping districts and later spread to other neighborhoods and suburbs. Authorities called in Illinois National Guard troops to help police restore order.
A groundbreaking ceremony for the Obama Presidential Center, in Jackson Park on the city’s South Side, took place in September 2021. Plans called for the center to include a museum, a public library, classrooms, a playground, and public gathering spaces.
