Sunday, March 4, 2018

Celebrating Chicago

It's March 4, and that means it's time for a celebration:  This day in 1837 was when Chicago was incorporated as a city.  It's a great time to recall the storied history of Chicago, and the other celebrated aspects.  Many of these aspects are found in Chicago's flag:  The top white stripe is for the North Side (#43).  The top blue stripe represents Lake Michigan (shoreline) (#44) and the North Branch of the Chicago River (#45).  The middle white stripe represents the West Side (#46).  The bottom blue stripe represents the South Branch of the Chicago River (#47) and the Canal (#48)--first was the Illinois and Michigan Canal (#50), and then the present Sanitary and Ship Canal (#51).  The bottom white stripe represents the South Side (#52).

The far-left star represents Fort Dearborn (#53), a military installation named for Secretary of War James Dearborn of the Jefferson administration, and where a clash occurred with aboriginal Native peoples in 1812.  The start just to the left of the center is for the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.  Just to the right of the center is the start for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition (#54), held in Jackson Park (#55).  And the star on the far right is for the Century of Progress World's Fair (#56), held in 1933-1934, which celebrated the Centennial of when Chicago was incorporated as a village in 1833.

Chicago was originally settled along the banks of the main branch of the Chicago River (#57), which was lined with smelly onion leek grass, which led rise to the Native peoples' name Checagou that became Chicago (#58).  One of the first settlers was Jean-Baptiste Point DuSable (#59), who had property near the banks of the Chicago River, where the Chicago Riverwalk is now (#60).  Another prominent early citizen was John Kinzie (#61).

Over a 100 years before these first settlers came, Father Marquette and Louis Joliet took a journey from near present-day Sault Saint Marie to near present-day Arkansas.  On the way back, they had to portage (#62) from the Des Plaines River (#63) to the Chicago River, which is commemorated at the site of the Chicago Portage National Historic Site (#64).  They noted a short canal would connect the Atlantic Ocean and Great Lakes to the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico.  In 1848, the Illinois and Michigan Canal was opened in 1848, and helped foster Chicago's growth, as it served as a major crossroads location.  Canal Origins Park (#65) along Ashland Avenue by the Bridgeport neighborhood (#66) commemorates the canal's role in Chicago.

Eventually, Chicago became a rail hub, and to some extent, it still is a hub for Amtrak service at Chicago Union Station (#67), which is not too far from the building built in 1974 and named the Sears Tower (#68), one of the tallest buildings in the world, a great symbol for the prosperity of Chicago.  Another famed skyscraper is well-known as the John Hancock Building (#69), located along the Magnificent Mile shopping district (#70).  As great as the views are from the observatories of both, I feel the best view are found in the Cite Restaurant on the top floor of Lake Point Tower (#71) near Navy Pier (#72), which is one of my favorite Chicago attractions.

The one thing I find so notable about Chicago is that it is a patchwork quilt of so many different neighborhoods, each with its own special flavor, much as it is with all the surrounding suburbs.  I recall the time when I was at Valparaiso University and I visited my Grandma for a weekend.  While riding the South Shore Line train, I entered the city of Chicago in the Southeast Side neighborhood of Hegewisch (#73) and went nearly 20 miles all the way to the north side neighborhood of Forest Glen (#74), where she lived at the time, right by a forest area along the banks of the North Branch of the Chicago River.  It was incredible to think that that in that distance, I covered so many different neighborhoods that are all part of one city. 

Another aspect I find very notable about Chicago is how the patchwork of neighborhoods is all connected by the various rail lines of the Chicago Transit Authority system (#75) that spread out from the Loop (#76), rail lines in downtown Chicago that form a ring on Wabash Avenue to the east, Van Buren Street to the South, Wells Street to the west, and Lake Street to the north.  

The Red Line (#77) travels a long length of the city from Howard Street on the North Side to 95th Street along the Dan Ryan Expressway (#78), going through a subway along State Street (#79) in the Loop. 

The Orange Line (#80) was the most-recently built of the lines, constructed in 1993 thanks in part to efforts by former US Congressman William Lipinski (#81).  It connects the Loop to Midway Airport (#82). 

The Yellow Line (#83) is the shortest, and doesn't pass through the Loop:  It connects the Howard Street Station to nearby north suburb Skokie (#84). 

The Green Line (#85) starts at the edge of downtown Oak Park (#86), travels along Lake Street (#87) through the West Side, to the Loop, and then heads south, past McCormick Place (#88), and through Bronzeville (#89) and then splitting into two branches that terminate at two different locations on 63rd Street, to the west at Ashland Avenue in the Englewood neighborhood (#90) and to the east at Cottage Grove Avenue just past Washington Park (#91). 

The Blue Line (#92) is my primary line:  It starts in the suburb of Forest Park (#93), then travels along the Interstate 290/Eisenhower Expressway corridor (#94), through the south side of Oak Park, and then onto the West Side of Chicago, all the way to Loop, going through a subway in the Loop underneath Dearborn Street (#95), before turning northwestward to follow the Milwaukee Avenue corridor (#96), and then the I-90/Kennedy Expressway (#97) all the way to the suburb of Rosemont (#98), and then terminating at O'Hare International Airport (#99), named for a World War II pilot, Butch O'Hare (#100), who was the son of "Easy Eddie" O'Hare (#101), who worked with gangster Al Capone before deciding to turn against him. 

The Purple Line's (#102) northern terminus is at Linden Avenue in the suburb of Wilmette (#103), and passes through the suburb of Evanston (#104) to the Howard station.  During weekday peak rush periods, service extends south from Howard to the Loop elevated tracks. 

The Pink Line (#105) is the most recently created line, going from the Loop elevated tracks into the West Side, past the United Center (#106), and through the Mexican neighborhood of Pilsen (#107), through much of the Lower West Side (#108) before terminating at the station at 54th Avenue and Cermak Road in the suburb of Cicero (#109), on tracks at grade (ground-level).  (Most of the route used to be a branch of the Blue Line.) 

The Brown Line (#110) goes from the Loop elevated tracks to various North Side neighborhoods, like Lakeview (#111) and Lincoln Square (#112), terminating near Albany Park (#113) at Kimball Avenue, after traveling at grade for a few stops.

These CTA train lines and the neighborhoods along them are featured in a PBS program entitled Chicago by 'L', with host Geoffrey Baer (#114).  He's a brilliant person who has made many wonderful programs, each focusing on a different aspect about Chicago and the surrounding area.

Another person who knows Chicago well is Ms. North (#115), who was the teacher for my History of Chicago class at OPRF High School during my final semester there senior year.  She made class so enjoyable as we explored Chicago and the surrounding area, drawing from her wealth of knowledge from training as a docent for the Chicago Architecture Foundation (#116).  And I greatly admire her teaching philosophy as focused on shaping the whole student, going beyond the mechanics of doing school work.  One memory I have of her class is when she threw a Chicago birthday celebration on March 4, with a large sheet cake with the design of the Chicago flag on it.

And with that, I salute Chicago and the many great contributions it makes to Illinois--certainly as evidenced by how many things I've added to my 200 List for Illinois's Bicentennial in just this one blog post.  Surely there will be more given Chicago's dominance in Illinois, while I also recognize notable people, places, and things throughout the other parts of Illinois, too.  That will certainly be on my mind in a few days when I celebrate my birthday, celebrating all that my life entails, especially here in my beloved Oak Park, as I recall fondly that I started off on the North Side of Chicago.

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