Thanks to Dex Knows for sharing all these amazing Chicago facts!
Chicago (Photo from www.universitiesinchicago.org)
- Western Avenue is the longest continuous street within Chicago, at 24.5 miles. Until 1869, Western Avenue was the western edge of the city.
- The world’s largest commercial office building is the Merchandise Mart, at 222 Merchandise Mart Plaza, along the Chicago River.
- The world’s largest illuminated fountain is Buckingham Fountain in Grant Park.
- When the Harold Washington Library Center opened in 1991 at 400 S. State St., with about 6.5 million books, it was the world’s largest municipal library.
- The Lincoln Park Zoo, one of the last free major zoos in the country, is the country’s oldest public zoo with an annual attendance of 3 million people.
- The world’s tallest masonry building is the Monadnock Block at 53 W. Jackson Blvd.
- The world’s largest free-admission food festival is the Taste of Chicago in Grant Park.
- The world’s largest convention facility is McCormick Place along Lake Shore Drive, just south of Downtown.
- The McCormick Place convention center offers the largest amount of exhibition space in North America (2.2 million square feet).
- The world’s busiest futures exchange is the Chicago Board of Trade.
- The world’s largest parochial school system is the Archdiocese of Chicago.
- The world’s largest water filtration plant is the Jardine Water Purification Plant at 600 E. Grand Ave. along the lakefront.
- Chicago produced the first roller skates in 1884.
- Chicago produced the first Elevated railway in 1892.
- Chicago produced the first Cracker Jacks in 1893.
- Chicago produced the first zipper in 1896.
- Chicago produced the first steel-framed skyscraper in 1885, for the Home Insurance Co.
- Chicago produced the first window envelope in 1902.
- Chicago was incorporated as a city in 1837.
- The Historic Route 66 begins in Chicago at Grant Park on Adams Street in front of the Art Institute of Chicago.
- The first Ferris wheel made its debut in Chicago at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. Today, Navy Pier is home to a 15-story Ferris wheel, modeled after the original one.
- The game of 16-inch softball, which is played without gloves, was invented in Chicago.
- In 1900, Chicago completed a highly innovative engineering project – reversing the flow of the Chicago River so that it empties into the Mississippi River instead of Lake Michigan.
- Chicago was one of the first municipalities to require public art as part of the construction of municipal buildings, with the passage of the Percentage-for-Arts Ordinance in 1978.
- The Chicago Cultural Center is the first free municipal cultural center in the U.S. and home to the world’s largest stained glass Tiffany dome.
- The Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower) is the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere at 110 stories.
- The Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower) elevators are among the fastest in the world, operating as fast as 1,600 feet per minute.
- The first steel railroad in the United States was produced here in 1865.
- The first mail-order business, Montgomery Ward & Co., was established in Chicago in 1872.
- The first televised U.S. presidential candidates’ debate was broadcast from Chicago’s CBS Studios on Sept. 26, 1960, between John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon.
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