Three cities · 03
芝加哥Chicago
The lake, the wind, and the city that invented the skyscraper.
41.88° N, 87.63° W—:—— where I am now
Chicago runs along the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan, a lake so large it behaves like a sea. After the Great Fire of 1871 the city rebuilt itself upward, inventing the steel-frame skyscraper in the process; its downtown is still an open-air museum of American architecture, from Louis Sullivan to Mies van der Rohe.
It is a city of neighborhoods — 77 of them, officially — of blues and house music, deep-dish arguments, brutal winters, and a lakefront that turns entirely public every summer. The nickname “Windy City” probably started as a jab at its politicians, but the wind off the lake earns it honestly.