Sunday 3 September 2017

Day 60 of Mentor on Road, USA

“It is the cheerful mind that is persevering. It is the strong mind that hews its way through a thousand difficulties.
- Swami Vivekananda
Day 60 of Mentor on Road, USA was a travel day from Indianapolis to Chicago.

We started driving on 4 June, 2017 from Boston and passed through states of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Washington DC, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Oregon, Washington, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Nebraska, St. Louis and Indianapolis.  Driven 13,213 kilometres / 8210 miles till now and will drive 15,450 kilometres / 9602 miles in total. We have now entered the 34th state of our journey, Illinois.                                      

Chicago, officially the City of Chicago, is the third-most populous city in the United States. With a population estimate of 2,704,958 according to the US Census 2016, it is also the most populous city in both the state of Illinois and the Midwestern United States. It is the county seat of Cook County.

The Chicago metropolitan area, often referred to as Chicagoland, has nearly 10 million people and is the third-largest in the U.S. Chicago has also been called a global architecture capital. In terms of wealth and economy, Chicago is considered one of the most important business centers in the world.


Chicago was incorporated as a city in 1837, near a 
portage between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River watershed, and grew rapidly in the mid-nineteenth century. After the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, which razed several square miles and left more than 100,000 homeless, the city made a concerted effort to rebuild on the damage. The construction boom accelerated population growth throughout the following decades, leading Chicago to become among the five largest cities in the world by 1900.

During this period Chicago is noted for its contribution to urban planning and zoning standards, new construction styles (including the 
Chicago School of architecture), the embracement of the City Beautiful Movement, and the eventual creation of the steel-framed skyscraper

Positioned along Lake Michigan, the city is an international hub for finance, commerce, industry, technology, telecommunications, and transportation: O'Hare International Airport is the second-busiest airport in the world when measured by aircraft traffic; the region also has the largest number of U.S. highways and rail road freight.

The city has one of the world's largest and most diversified economies with no single industry employing more than 14% of the workforce.


Chicago is a major world financial center, with the 
second-largest central business district in the United States. The city is the headquarters of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago (the Seventh District of the Federal Reserve). 
                                          
      The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago

The city has major financial and 
futures exchanges, including the Chicago Stock Exchange, the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, which is owned, along with the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) by Chicago's CME Group.


Perhaps due to the influence of the 
Chicago school of economics, the city also has markets trading unusual contracts such as emissions (on the Chicago Climate Exchange) and equity style indices (on the U.S. Futures Exchange). Chase Bank has its commercial and retail banking headquarters in Chicago's Chase Tower.

The city of Chicago also hosts 12 Fortune Global 500 companies and 17 Financial Times 500 companies. The city claims two Dow 30 company: aerospace giant Boeing, which moved its headquarters from Seattle to the Chicago Loop in 2001, and Kraft Heinz.

Manufacturing, printing, publishing and food processing also play major roles in the city's economy. Several medical products and services companies are headquartered in the Chicago area, including:

  • Baxter International 
  • Boeing 
  • Abbott Laboratories
  • Healthcare division of General Electric

Chicago is a major world convention destination. The city's main convention center is McCormick Place. With its four interconnected buildings, it is the largest convention center in the nation and third-largest in the world. Chicago also ranks third in the U.S. (behind Las Vegas and Orlando) in number of conventions hosted annually.

The Willis Tower (formerly named Sears Tower) is a popular destination for tourists. The Willis Tower has an observation deck open to tourists year round with high up views overlooking Chicago and Lake Michigan. The observation deck includes an enclosed glass balcony that extends 10 feet out on the side of the building. Tourists are able to look straight down.
   


The Willis Tower

The journey till now has been immensely satisfactory. Mentor on Road hopes it stays as productive and blissful as it has always been.


 Jai Ho! (Let victory be yours)

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