Chicago is known as the Windy City not because of its weather but its boasting. In the early nineteenth century, Chicago promoters went up and down the East Coast loudly promoting Chicago as an excellent place to invest. Detractors claimed they were full of wind. Later, when Chicago and New York were competing to hold the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, a New York editor described Chicago as a windy city. Chicago won the competition and held the fair.
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Did You Know?
- The world's longest street is Chicago's Western Avenue.
- The Chicago Post Office at 433 W. Van Buren is the only postal facility in the world which you can drive a car through.
- The term "Jazz" was coined in Chicago in 1914. The city's native musicians included band leader Benny Goodman and drummer Gene Krupa.
- Chicago is home to the Lincoln Park Zoo, which is one of the last free zoos.
- Chicago is the favorite road city for big-league baseball players, according to Sports Illustrated magazine's 2003 Player Survey.
- Chicago is home to the Harold Washington Library, the world's largest public library.
- Hugh Hefner started the publication of "Playboy" at 6052 S. Harper St. in Chicago in 1953.
Famous Buildings
- Tribune Tower, home of the Chicago Tribune newspaper, has exterior walls that are embedded with authentic pieces of famous buildings including Westminster Abbey, the Alamo, Hamlet's castle, the Great Pyramid, the Taj Mahal, Fort Sumter and the Arc de Triomphe.
- Under instructions from William Wrigley, architects designed the Wrigley Building to look like a "luscious birthday cake." It also became the first air-conditioned office building in 1946.
- Chicago's McCormick Place has the largest amount of exhibit space of any convention center in the country at 2.2 million square feet.
Chicago by the numbers
- 54 museums
- More than 200 theatres
- Approximately 15,000 restaurants in the metropolitan area and 5,500 in the central business district
- Three of the world's tallest buildings including: The Sears Tower - 1,450 feet The AON Building - 1,136 feet The John Hancock Building - 1,127 feet
- 77 neighborhoods
- 31 miles of lakefront
- 550 parks
- 15 miles of bathing beaches
- More than 200 annual parades
Larger Than Life
- The William Wrigley, Jr. Company is the world's largest gum manufacturer, producing more than 20 million packages a day.
- In 1997 The Field Museum purchased Sue, the largest, most complete and best preserved Tyrannosaurus Rex ever discovered.
- The Wild Reef Exhibit at the John G. Shedd Aquarium is one of the largest and most diverse shark habitats in North America. The aquarium is the largest indoor aquarium in the world.
- The Art Institute of Chicago holds the largest collections of Impressionist paintings in the world outside of the Louvre in Paris.
- The largest Latino cultural institution in the nation is Chicago's Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum.
Food Tidbits
- Nabisco, the world's largest cookie and cracker factory, is located in Chicago (7300 S. Kedzie Avenue).
- The world's largest ice cream cone factory, Keebler, is also located in Chicago (10839 S. Langley Avenue).
- Brach and Brock, located at 401 N. Cicero Avenue in Chicago, is the world's largest candy factory.
- The Taste of Chicago is the world's largest free outdoor food festival. It takes place during Maiytra 2006.
Movies filmed in Chicago
- Batman Begins
- Ali
- Barbershop
- My Best Friend’s Wedding
- A League of Their Own
- What Women Want
- Bad Boys
- Ferris Bueller's Day Off
- Home Alone I, II, III
- Miracle on 34th St.
- Ocean's 11
- Stir of Echoes
- The Fugitive
- The Negotiator
- When Harry Met Sally
Stars