Second City

                Hello everyone. My name is Khursand Marodbekov and welcome to my podcast. Today I would like to talk about something which I believe is familiar to all of you. It’s about the city that we all live in or maybe live not too far from it. The city called Chicago. I would like to touch base the history of the city right from the moment it was established up to this date, where it has become one of the greatest city not just in America but around the entire world.

                As we all know before the Europeans moved to North America, Indian Americans were the permanent inhabitant of this great land. They lived all around the country and so did in Chicago. The word Chicago originated from a Native American word “Shikaakwa”, translated as “wild onion” or “wild garlic”. The actual wild garlic grew abundantly in the area.  Around 1780 the first non-indigenous settler, Jean Baptiste Point de Sable, arrived in the area. He was of African and European (French) descent. Few years after following the Northwest Indian War some area of Chicago turned to United States military and eventually around 1833 all the Indian tribes were forcibly removed from their land. That year the population of the city was only 200. Within several years the numbers turned to 4000. The City if Chicago was incorporated in March 4, 1837. This is the actual birthday of the city. Chicago was also one of the fastest growing cities in the entire nation for many decades.

                Like many other cities Chicago has its own flag and seal. The flag consist of two blue horizontal stripes on a white field. Between the two stripes there are four red stars. Each star has a historical meaning which is symbolized with the city. I won’t go through all the stars but will mention only one, which commemorate the Great Chicago Fire. The fire started around 9PM of central time of October 8 of 1871. People of that time believed that the fire started by a cow kicking over a lantern in the barn owned by Patrick O’Leary. The fire spread through the entire city. The city which buildings predominant material was wood, the sidewalks and many roads were also made of wood. Basically more than 2/3 of the city structure was made of wood. That night the wind was so strong that it would spread the flame in the matter of seconds. The fire was so instance that it lasted almost for two days. Once it ended almost the entire city was destroyed. Among the ruined area was 73 miles of road, 120 miles of sidewalk, and 100,000 people were left homeless, 120 bodies were recovered but the death toll might have been much higher. The fire basically cost the city over 222 million dollars, which was at the time 1/3 of the city valuation. The donation was pouring through the entire nation, as well as the whole world.

                Fast forward to the modern day, Chicago is the third largest city in the United States. It used to be the second biggest before Los Angeles took over its title. However, Chicago is still called the second city. Chicago is also known for its skylines. We have one of the tallest buildings in the world. Back in 60s some of the very fine architectures realized that skyscraper represent a new form of architecture and started designing buildings that emphasized their vertical nature. This new form of architecture was spread through other major cities around the US and it was called Commercial Style or Chicago School. Willis Tower, which was initially build as a Sears Tower, was one of the tallest building in the world from 1974 to 1998, before the Petronas Towers were built in Malaysia. It remained the tallest building in the United States until last year, but New York One Point Tower is apparently taller than Willis Tower.

Alright everyone, this was my brief podcast about our beloved, at least mine, city of Chicago. Thank you for listening and good buy now.