Chicago

Blus Alexander
– 32 group

Kiev
2002

      The United States of America is a very diverse
country.

      Its nature, climate, population varies from the
East Coast to the west, from the northern border to the southern.

      It is a multicultural and multiracial country.

      Though its history dates back only to the 15^th
century despite the European countries, its cities and towns have so many
peculiar features that it is very interesting for us to have a “tour” around
the USA making short stop at the biggest cities of the USA.

      Among
the USA’s biggest cities are New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, and
Philadelphia.

      The country’s most important city is its capital
– Washington, D.C.

      With its Grand neoclassical building and its
tree-lined avenues, Washington, D.C. strikes the visitor as a lovely and formal
city. Washington wasn’t always this way.

      On September 8, 1664, British troops occupied
New Amsterdam without resistance, overthrew the Dutch government, and called
the place New York. Seven years later the Dutch recaptured the city and called
it New Orange, but in 1674 the city was in the hands of the British again who
returned the name New York.

      In America there are a lot of large cities but I
want to tell about Chicago.

      Chicago
is the third-largest city in the United States and one of the country’s leading
industrial, commercial, financial, and transport center. It extends some 47 km
(29 mi) along the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan, occupying flatland
traversed by two short rivers: the Chicago River and the Calumet River.

      The city’s rapid growth was
due in large part to its location, with ready access to markets and raw
materials; it has the world’s busiest airport, Chicago-O’Hare International
Airport.

      Aided by an excellent
distribution network, Chicago is America’s most important rail and haulage
center and is a significant port handling both domestic and international
trade. Great Lakes freighters and river barges deliver bulk commodities such as
iron ore, coal, chemicals, oil, and grain.

      The Chicago metropolitan area
has the highest number of manufacturing employees in the United States. City’s
largest employers is the electrical goods industry, followed by the steel,
machinery, fabricated metals, foods, printing and publishing, chemicals, and
transport equipment industries.

      The Chicago Board of Trade
and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange are among the world’s largest commodity
markets. The city is a leading convention center with extensive hotel
facilities, including McCormick.

      Chicago has one of the
world’s most beautiful lakefronts.

      The world’s first skyscraper
was constructed in Chicago, in 1885, spawning the innovative Chicago School of
architecture. The central part of the city has several of the world’s tallest
buildings, including the Sears Tower, which at 110 storeys high is the tallest
in the United States. Construction of tall office buildings continues.

      Chicago is a major
center of higher education, with numerous colleges and universities. The
prestigious University of Chicago (1890) was the site in 1942 of the world’s
first controlled nuclear chain reaction.