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Chicago, the third-largest city in the United States, sits on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan in northeastern Illinois, serving as the economic, cultural, and transportation hub of the Midwest. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it blends a towering skyline of skyscrapers, diverse neighborhoods, and world-class arts with gritty industrial roots and vibrant immigrant influences.

Founding and Rapid Growth
Native Potawatomi tribes inhabited the area for centuries before French explorers Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette arrived in 1673, noting its strategic portage between the Great Lakes and Mississippi River systems. Jean Baptiste Point du Sable established the first permanent non-Native settlement in the 1780s, operating a trading post at the Chicago River's mouth. Incorporated as a town in 1833 with just 350 people, Chicago exploded after the 1848 Illinois and Michigan Canal and first railroads linked it to national markets, jumping to the ninth-largest U.S. city by 1860.

Great Fire and Rebirth
The 1871 Great Chicago Fire razed 3.3 square miles, leaving 100,000 homeless and $200 million in damage, yet resilient rebuilding introduced steel-frame skyscrapers, fireproof materials, and Daniel Burnham's visionary 1909 Plan of Chicago—pioneering urban planning with boulevards, parks, and cultural institutions. Waves of immigrants—Irish, Germans, Poles, Italians, and later African Americans during the Great Migration—fueled stockyards, factories, and rail yards, making it America's meatpacking and rail capital.

Architecture and Culture
Home to the world's first skyscraper (1885 Home Insurance Building), Chicago pioneered modern architecture via the "Chicago School" of Louis Sullivan and others, visible today in icons like the Willis Tower, neo-Gothic Tribune Tower, and Aqua Tower. Neighborhoods reflect diversity: the Loop's business district, Bronzeville's jazz heritage, Pilsen's murals, and Chinatown's gates. Institutions like the Art Institute, Field Museum, and Millennium Park (home to "The Bean") draw millions.

Sports, Food, and Modern Life
Chicagoans passionately support the Cubs, White Sox (MLB), Bears (NFL), Bulls (NBA), Blackhawks (NHL), and Fire (MLS). Culinary staples include deep-dish pizza, Italian beef sandwiches, and hot dogs "Chicago-style." As a global city, it hosts O'Hare (busiest U.S. airport), futures trading at the CME, and tech/biotech growth, though challenges like crime and inequality persist. From swampy outpost to "City of Big Shoulders," Chicago embodies American ambition and reinvention.