I Love Chicago
I have to admit I started this blog because I live in Chicago and I love this city! I have lived in the Chicagoland area my entire life and I feel that there is no other place to live with so many great opportunites. Here are some basic statistics about this great city:
The city of Chicago and the surrounding suburbs contain more than 9.5 Million residents. (3 Million living in the city proper) Chicago is also the third largest metropolitan area in the US behind New York City, NY and Los Angeles, CA.
Chicago was founded in 1833 as a water port with access to Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River, which granted shipping and travel from the atlantic ocean access all the way through the Great Lakes and into the Gulf of Mexico. The name Chicago comes from a French spelling of an Illinois Indian tribe word meaning “wild-leek” or what we might call a “smelly onion”. The Potowatami Indians (Yes the same tribe that has the Potowatami Casino) used Chicago as a trade depot through the 18th century.
Later in the 1800′s Chicago became a transportation hub between the eastern and western US because of the railroads crossing paths here. (the Chicago Union Railroad) The Illinois-Michigan Canal made it possible for more shipping to be done through the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico. 
The Great Chicago Fire in 1871 (Possibly started by Mrs. O’Leary’s Cow) leveled much of the city and since then building codes and contractors have favored brick and stone buildings instead of wood and siding you would see up east or out west. The red brick bungalow is a common sight in Chicago and the surrounding suburbs. Those bricks are everywhere!
There is more Chicago History to share and I will post more in the coming days and weeks.