Page 20 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Chicago

18  INTRODUCING CHIC A GO

Chicago’s proximity to both the Mississippi O’Leary shed, the cause of the fire was
River and the Great Lakes confirmed it as not determined, and the O’Leary family
the nation’s trans portation hub. By 1860, was later given public pardon. An 1874
15 railroad companies had terminals here. bylaw prohibited the building of wooden
Christmas Day 1865 saw the opening of structures downtown. Consequently,
the gigantic Union Stock Yards, the city’s Chicago architect William Le Baron Jenney
largest employer for decades. (It eventually (see pp28–9) designed the Home Insurance
closed in 1971.) Meat packing laws, along Building (1884), a nine-story structure
with the Food and Drug Administration, supported by a steel skeleton, regarded by
were created after many to be the first skyscraper. Jenney’s
Upton Sinclair’s stirring design paved the way for the canyons of
1906 book, The tall buildings found in city centers today.
Jungle, revealed
the poor Social Unrest, Social Reform
Detail of cow (1879) on the archway conditions of As Chicago’s downtown rebuilt and the
to Union Stock Yards such stockyards. city continued to expand – to 500,000
Although meat inhabitants by 1880 – social divisions grew.
processing remained Chicago’s major In the 1873 Bread Riot, police trapped
industry, positioning the city as the US’s thousands of protesting hungry workers
primary supplier, the grain-handling and under a bridge, clubbing many to death.
manufacturing industries were also strong Four years later, during the 1877 national
in 19th-century Chicago. railroad strike, Chicago police fired on
demonstrators, killing 30. On May 4, 1886,
The Great Fire workers rallied at Haymarket Square to
The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 burned for protest the police killing of two laborers
36 hours, October 8 to 10,
destroying most of the
buildings in downtown
Chicago, all of which were
made of wood. At least 300
people died, and about
100,000 – one-third of the
population – were left
homeless. A cow, belonging
to a certain Mrs. O’Leary, was
blamed for kicking over a
lantern and starting the fire.
Although an inquiry confirmed
that the blaze started in the The aftermath of the Great Fire, as seen from Chicago Harbor

1860 Abraham Lincoln 1871 Great Chicago Fire 1880 Chicago’s
nominated for US president 1874 City council prohibits population 1886
at Republican Convention reaches 500,000 Haymarket
Lincoln Statue, in the building of wooden
Lincoln Park structures downtown Riot
1860 1870 1880
1861 Civil
War begins 1865 Union 1873 Bread Riot 1879 Art Institute of 1889 Hull-
Stock Yards, Chicago (see pp48–51) 1884 World’s first House
world’s biggest founded as the Chicago skyscraper (see (see p118)
stockyard, opens Academy of Fine Arts pp28–9) built founded

016-021_EW_Chicago.indd 18 13/07/16 2:58 pm
Eyewitness Travel LAYERS PRINTED:
History Portrait template “UK” LAYER
(Source v1.2)
Date 20th August 2012
Size 125mm x 217mm