Today, we’re traveling again—or rather, you’re traveling, since today’s lesson is about Chicago, where JR and I live.
Lesson summary
Hi there, I’m Jeff and this is Plain English lesson number 499 (I can’t believe it!). JR is the producer and he has uploaded the full content to PlainEnglish.com/499.
Every so often, we create a lesson about a place in the English-speaking world. And a number of you have asked for, even clamored for , a travel lesson about Chicago specifically. So today your wish is coming true. The expression is “wiped out.” And we have a song of the week.
Real quick, remember Saturday is the big Plain English 500-lesson celebration on Facebook and Instagram. It’s Saturday, September 3, at 9:00 a.m. New York time. So do the conversion, figure out what time it is for you, and remember to join us on Facebook and Instagram at that time. The links to both those profiles are in the lesson description. Well this is a long lesson, so let’s get on with it.
All about Chicago
Let’s start with the basics. Chicago is America’s third-largest city, with a population of about 2.7 million. It’s located right at the confluence of the Chicago River and Lake Michigan, the southernmost of the Great Lakes. The city is known, informally, as the “capital” of the Midwest region, an area rich in agriculture and industry. We have four seasons here. Winter is long, cold, snowy, and very punishing. Summer is hot—perfect for a day at the beach or for a stroll along Lake Michigan. Spring is rainy; fall is cool and crisp.
To understand Chicago, you have to understand transportation. In the middle 1800s, a canal opened to connect the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River, the two great waterways of North America. Chicago’s position along the canal allowed it to take advantage of new trade routes. It quickly became a center of commerce. Railroads came around at the same time, and the Chicago area became a railroad hub, connecting the small towns in the Midwest to the rest of the growing country.
Massive catalog companies like Montgomery Ward and Sears, Roebuck & Company, established themselves in Chicago. In the Montgomery Ward warehouse, the story goes, employees would skate around the massive floors on roller skates, picking the merchandise to be shipped out to customers around the country.
When highways, and then airports, were built, Chicago retained its position as a transportation hub. Today , O’Hare Airport is the fourth-busiest in the nation.
Those early days of trade stamped the city with its essential character: a city that works, the center of commerce for the whole region, a city that connects other parts of a growing country, and a city that appreciates culture.
If you visit today, the first thing you’ll notice is the architecture. Chicago has beautiful, tall urban architecture. When elevators were invented, some of the first skyscrapers opened here. And then as styles changed, Chicago remained at the forefront of building design. Older buildings were preserved, even as the city made space for new styles. The result is that the city’s downtown tells a rich architectural history.
You can trace styles from the Gothic Revival Tribune Tower to the minimalist One IBM Plaza to the elegant glass-and-steel towers of today. One of the best summertime attractions is the Chicago Architecture Foundation’s river boat tour. The 90-minute tour up and down the Chicago River cuts through downtown, and an expert narrator uses the architecture to tell the history of the city.
Chicago has always been a hub for culture. The Art Institute of Chicago is my favorite museum in the world. It was founded in 1879 and features artwork from every continent and from over 4,000 years of history. Some of its most famous works include Edward Hopper’s “Nighthawk”, Grant Wood’s “American Gothic”, Emanuel Lutze’s “Washington Crossing the Delaware”, and Georges Seurot’s massive “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.”
The Field Museum is our natural history museum and it has an equally rich collection. The Field is most famous for its two dinosaurs, Máximo and Sue. Máximo is a cast of a 112-foot titanosaur and it stands in the Field’s stately lobby. A cast is an extremely accurate reproduction; no full titanosaur exists. But the cast was made from dinosaur bones discovered in Patagonia, Argentina.
Sue is real. Sue is the most complete Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton ever developed: the fossils are real. Of the T-rex’s 380 bones, 250 are complete in Sue. She’s on display on the upper floor. In the rest of the museum, you can study the natural world—life-like specimens of animals and birds. None of them are alive, but I still don’t recommend getting too close to the man-eating lions.
Culture buffs can also enjoy the aquarium, science museum, contemporary art museum, and children’s museum. We also have museums for African-American history and Mexican art, among others. If you like nature, you can enjoy the free Lincoln Park Zoo, the larger Brookfield Zoo in the suburbs, an arboretum, and a botanical garden.
The most popular tourist destination is Navy Pier, which affords great views of the city. Take a spin on the 200-foot-high Ferris wheel for great city views, day or night. The first Ferris wheel ever to be displayed was right here in Chicago at the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893.
Do you like music? You can go to the massive Lollapalooza music festival in the summer (JR went this year). You can see big concerts at the stadiums, or smaller shows in the bars and clubs. Chicago is also famous for jazz and blues music; there are still old-time jazz and blues clubs with music every night of the week.
Chicago has great sports. We have two of the oldest baseball teams, the Cubs on the north side and the White Sox on the south side. The Cubs play in Wrigley Field, the second-oldest stadium in the majors. The Blackhawks were one of the original six teams in today’s National Hockey League. The Bears are one of only two surviving teams from the very beginning of the National Football League. And the Bulls, our basketball team, need no introduction to anyone who lived through the Michael Jordan era.
If you like food, you’ll love Chicago. We have a signature style of pizza. It’s called deep-dish pizza. And if you’ve had deep-dish pizza somewhere else: it’s not the same. We have our own style of hot dog too. Here are the ingredients: a hot dog, a poppy-seed bun, mustard, white onions, green relish, a pickle spear, slices of tomato, pickled peppers, and celery salt. It’s like a hot dog was “dragged through a garden” because it has so many ingredients. One ingredient you won’t find on a Chicago hot dog: ketchup. And I don’t recommend asking for ketchup at a Chicago hot dog stand, either.
If pizza and hot dogs aren’t your thing, you can relax. Chicago has a booming food scene, with innovative and award-winning restaurants in downtown and the popular West Loop. But the neighborhoods are full of great food too, reflecting the diversity of the city. Within walking distance of my house, I can find pierogi from Poland, tacos from Mexico, pupusas from El Salvador, barbecue ribs from Korea, fresh hummus from Lebanon, and several options for Persian kabab.
If I don’t stop now, I might never stop talking about Chicago. So let me tell you just one more thing. On October 8, 1871, a massive fire destroyed 17,000 buildings and left 100,000 people homeless; about a third of the city was wiped out . It was a tragedy. But like many tragedies, something good came of the fire.
By 1871, thoughts on urban planning had changed. And Chicago could take advantage of the latest thinking on how best to plan a city’s layout. The city set out not just to rebuild, but to continue growing. In the early 1900s, Daniel Burnham, a local architect, published the “Plan of Chicago,” the first intentional plan for a city to manage its growth. The plan wanted Chicago to become the “Paris of the Prairie.”
The plan was not fully implemented, but many of the principles still survive from that era. All but a small part of our lakefront is parkland, available for people to enjoy the trails, golf courses, beaches, and parks. The city’s streets are laid out in a sensible grid, with alleys. The neighborhoods feature large and small parks, so that everyone in Chicago can walk to a neighborhood park.
All that combines to make Chicago the most livable of the big cities today. New York has more excitement, San Francisco has more money, Miami has more sunshine, and LA has more movie stars. But Chicago has a great balance and great quality of life for those of us lucky enough to live here.
Join us on Saturday for more
Well this was the longest first half in Plain English history, so we’ll make the expression quick today. But before we do, just remember that on Saturday we’ll continue this topic. JR and I will tell you our personal favorite parts of the city. We’re going to take turns. And on the live stream, we’ll show pictures so you can see what we’re talking about.
That is this Saturday, September 3, at 8:00 am here, 9:00 am New York time, on Facebook and Instagram. Connect with us and get ready at PlainEnglish.com/500.
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