Yes, you're about to be force fed another several postings of our antics in Chicago. We've always said that our favorite part about Milwaukee is Chicago, and perhaps these pictures will prove it. Randy and Diane have been as seduced by the Windy City as we have, and during their summer trips to the midwest, we usually take two drives down there to sitesee the skyscrapers and snarf the pizza. During this particular trip we experienced a new side of Chicago, that of the beach resort.
I didn't believe it at first either, but Chicago actually boasts the "most swimmable" metropolitan shoreline in the US (whatever that means). I haven't the foggiest idea how this could be the case, and surely anyone that has been to South Beach would be just as skeptical. Perhaps it is considered the most swimmable because the tourists that are pushed into Lake Michigan by their mischevious family and friends swim like crazy to get the heck outta there . There must have been hundreds of people prancing around in the tide, and much to our surprise, very few of them were developing strange rashes or legions on their bodies from the polluted water. Sara and I have heard plenty of news stories in Milwaukee which lead us to believe that every time we flush our toilet the lake gets a few gallons deeper. Apparently that is not the case in the Chicago portion of our country's Northern Shore. Perhaps I'm just a little paranoid that I'd get pulled under by a cement shoe wearing ex-mafia man of bygone times.
Big city people get big ideas that lead to big projects (especially if there's a big budget). As I was looking up information about the beahes of Chicago I happened upon one of those huge projects that the modern metropolitanite is most likely oblivious to as he or she enjoys a beach day in the shadow of the world's tallest buildings. Like so many other Chicago stories, it all starts with the great fire of 1871. 15 years later people were still trying to dig out, and most of the excess debris was getting dumped into the lake. A dude named George Streeter decided to bank in on this and let his river boat run ashore 451 feet off the shore and payed rubble dumpers to do so next to his boat. Since the boat belonged to him he had legal rights to squat on the island that was accumulating below it, and before too long he had enough land to establish the "United States District of Lake Michigan", which was not subject to any laws of Chicago or Illinois. Eventually his island became a peninsula, and Streeter sold many deeds to people of low repute for a lot of cash. To make a long story short, for 32 years he fought against the local policemen and politicians to keep his ill-gotten land (which he cleverly called Streeterville) through use of shotguns and boiling water. I can imagine how relieved the policemen (I picture them being Irish) were that the water was purified before it became a deadly weapon.
George Streeter's land remained in his family until 1928, when it was finally ruled to be part of the city of Chicago. Of course by that time it had become a substantial chunk of urban real estate, valued at over $300,000. You'll never guess what stands on top of the exact spot where George Streeter's boat was beached for those 42 years...Chicago's fourth tallest building, The John Hancock Center! That's the double spired one behind Sara in this picture, you know, the one that Clark Griswold works in. I just love to think that all those gigantic buildings are standing on the land dumped there after the fire, and the only reason it was put there was because of one completely deranged guy. This is very similar to the history of Manhattan, don't forget that the entire United Nations complex in Eastern Manhattan is sitting on top of the land that was excavated when building the World Trade Center and dumped into the East River.
Yes, you're about to be force fed another several postings of our antics in Chicago. We've always said that our favorite part about Milwaukee is Chicago, and perhaps these pictures will prove it. Randy and Diane have been as seduced by the Windy City as we have, and during their summer trips to the midwest, we usually take two drives down there to sitesee the skyscrapers and snarf the pizza. During this particular trip we experienced a new side of Chicago, that of the beach resort.
I didn't believe it at first either, but Chicago actually boasts the "most swimmable" metropolitan shoreline in the US (whatever that means). I haven't the foggiest idea how this could be the case, and surely anyone that has been to South Beach would be just as skeptical. Perhaps it is considered the most swimmable because the tourists that are pushed into Lake Michigan by their mischevious family and friends swim like crazy to get the heck outta there . There must have been hundreds of people prancing around in the tide, and much to our surprise, very few of them were developing strange rashes or legions on their bodies from the polluted water. Sara and I have heard plenty of news stories in Milwaukee which lead us to believe that every time we flush our toilet the lake gets a few gallons deeper. Apparently that is not the case in the Chicago portion of our country's Northern Shore. Perhaps I'm just a little paranoid that I'd get pulled under by a cement shoe wearing ex-mafia man of bygone times. 
Big city people get big ideas that lead to big projects (especially if there's a big budget). As I was looking up information about the beahes of Chicago I happened upon one of those huge projects that the modern metropolitanite is most likely oblivious to as he or she enjoys a beach day in the shadow of the world's tallest buildings. Like so many other Chicago stories, it all starts with the great fire of 1871. 15 years later people were still trying to dig out, and most of the excess debris was getting dumped into the lake. A dude named George Streeter decided to bank in on this and let his river boat run ashore 451 feet off the shore and payed rubble dumpers to do so next to his boat. Since the boat belonged to him he had legal rights to squat on the island that was accumulating below it, and before too long he had enough land to establish the "United States District of Lake Michigan", which was not subject to any laws of Chicago or Illinois. Eventually his island became a peninsula, and Streeter sold many deeds to people of low repute for a lot of cash. To make a long story short, for 32 years he fought against the local policemen and politicians to keep his ill-gotten land (which he cleverly called Streeterville) through use of shotguns and boiling water. I can imagine how relieved the policemen (I picture them being Irish) were that the water was purified before it became a deadly weapon.
George Streeter's land remained in his family until 1928, when it was finally ruled to be part of the city of Chicago. Of course by that time it had become a substantial chunk of urban real estate, valued at over $300,000. You'll never guess what stands on top of the exact spot where George Streeter's boat was beached for those 42 years...Chicago's fourth tallest building, The John Hancock Center! That's the double spired one behind Sara in this picture, you know, the one that Clark Griswold works in. I just love to think that all those gigantic buildings are standing on the land dumped there after the fire, and the only reason it was put there was because of one completely deranged guy. This is very similar to the history of Manhattan, don't forget that the entire United Nations complex in Eastern Manhattan is sitting on top of the land that was excavated when building the World Trade Center and dumped into the East River. 
2 comments:
SO interesting! Honestly, I love reading your blog because I learn so much from it. However, I will admit I'm sad you guys moved before we had a chance to visit...Maybe we'll have to make a pilgrimage to Seattle...
The buildings just to the west of the WTC site are also sitting on top of filled in land. I'm not sure where it came from, but it used to be the river where they are. Crazy.
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