di The Windy City
One of the very large cities in the USA is Chicago. It's first inhabitants, the Potawwattamie people, called it ‘Chikagu’ that means ‘city of the Wild Onion’. Americans today call it ‘the Windy city’ because it is always very windy since it is on the shore of Lake Michigan, one of the five Great Lakes that life in the north of the United States and separate it from Canada. There are about 3 million people who live in Chicago. Chicagoans are very friendly and open-minded and love to try new things. It s a cosmopolitan city with a great number of ethnic areas. It has its Chinatown, a large African-American population, a large Eastern-European sector with a lot of Ukrainians, Polish and a many others as well. This cultural variety has inspired a lot of museums, an impressive collection of public sculpture, one of the world’s best symphony orchestras, excellent small theatres, and the University of Chicago.
Most people are completely in awe of the skyscrapers in the city centre. Chicago is the city that invented the skyscrapers in 1871 after the Great Fire destroyed more than 17,000 buildings. The Sears Tower, in fact, is the tallest building in America. It has 110 stories and is 430 enormous, but incredibly beautiful, giving Chicago its extraordinary skyline that at night looks like a mountain of coloured lights. The city also has a beautiful lakefront area and an elegant shopping district.
For an unforgettable view of ‘the windy city’, you can go either ‘up’ or ‘down’. Take an elevator or walk the 2,232 stairs, ‘up’ to the top of the Sears Tower, for a view of the windy city and the surrounding area or go ‘down’ the Chicago river on an architectural boat tour past tall office buildings, riverside cafes and the numerous buildings designed by famous American architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright.
