THE CITY THAT ROSE FROM ITS ASHES

When Dew and I were in Chicago, the city of wind and skyscrapers, we did one of the things I liked most about the trip, the architecture tour along the river. On this tour, they tell you the history of Chicago and how it's reflected in its landscape. The architecture of Chicago is very different from what we can see in Spain (although I imagine not so different from other large cities in the US), it is full of skyscrapers and very modern. What I didn't know before that tour is that Chicago is such a modern city because it was completely rebuilt in the last century. If you go to this city, I recommend this tour 100%, since there are some buildings specially built so you can see them from the river and you cannot appreciate them the same if you walk by them in the street. Furthermore, the stories they tell you are super interesting, here are a couple of them.

Chicago in Flames - Currier & Ives, 1871 (litography)

What happened in Chicago in October 1871 was, what is known as a series of catastrophic events. The fire started in the O'Leary family barn in the southwest of the city. Chicago, at that time, was covered in wood. All the buildings and even the sidewalks were built with it. In addition, there was a very serious drought since it had not rained all summer. The river that runs through the city was heavily polluted by industry and had a layer of flammable substances on top, so even though you'd think the river could help contain the fire, what it did was spread it and help it “cross” to the other parts of the city. To top it off, when the firefighters went to the place where the fire started, they took the wrong direction, giving time for the fire to continue expanding through all the layers of wood in the city. By the time the firefighters arrived at the right place, the fire was already out of control and the result would be the entire city reduced to ashes, 17,500 buildings destroyed and 90,000 affected. The number of people who died is not known with certainty as many were left under rubble or in ashes, but it is estimated that around 300 people died, and a third of the population (yes, a third of the total population) was left homeless.

Chicago ruins - Chicago History Museum

Instead of taking the city as lost, Chicagoans saw this as an opportunity to rebuild the city by learning from their mistakes. Wood was left behind and laws were made so that new buildings would be fireproof. Thus, brick, stone, marble and concrete, among others, arrived in Chicago. However, the greatest innovation was the use of steel, a much lighter material than iron that would allow taller buildings. All this reinvention (partly forced by the total reconstruction of the city), gave rise to the Chicago School, responsible for the world's first skyscraper, the Home Insurance Building, built in 1884.

Home Insurance Building - world's first skyscraper

Another huge step to prevent this from happening again was cleaning the river. As I've told you before, the river was so polluted that it helped spread the fire. Furthermore, the river flowed into Lake Michigan, which was where the citizens of Chicago drew their drinking water, so it was time to get their act together, accept the sign of destiny, and clean the water on which they depended so much. This story also seemed very interesting to me, cause they changed the direction of the river by building a canal, so that the dirt would leave the city instead of entering the lake, but this did not help either, since the river then flowed into the river Mississippi, another source of drinking water. Finally, it was concluded that the solution would be stop dumping waste into the river and gradually begin to clean the water of pollution. This process began at the beginning of the 20th century and it continues today. From what we were told, it is planned that within around five years, the water will be so clean that people can swim in it, although I don't know how they'll do it, with the tourist boats continually passing by.

In short, if the city of Chicago is what it is today, it's “thanks” to the fact that it was completely destroyed and rebuilt from scratch, just like when my ex dumped me.