Post by Gina on Jun 20, 2010 23:50:22 GMT -5
Following this "Fun Facts" trend. ;D
Enjoy!
* The "Historic Route 66" begins in Chicago at Grant Park on Adams Street in front of the Art Institute of Chicago.
* The Chicagoland area contains nearly 10 million people in three states – Illinois, Wisconsin and Indiana – and is the 22nd largest metropolitan area in the world.
* Chicago is home to eleven Fortune 500 companies, while the rest of the metropolitan area hosts an additional 21 Fortune 500 companies.
* McCormick Place, Chicago’s premier convention center, offers the largest amount of exhibition space in North America (2.2 million square feet).
* 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.
* Chicago’s downtown area is known as “The Loop.” The nickname refers to the area encircled by the elevated (‘L’) train tracks.
* The game of 16-inch softball, which is played without gloves, was invented in Chicago.
* In 1900, Chicago successfully completed a massive and highly innovative engineering project – reversing the flow of the Chicago River so that it emptied into the Mississippi River instead of Lake Michigan. Each year, the Chicago River is dyed green to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.
* The Art Institute of Chicago has one of the largest and most extensive collections of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings in the world.
* Chicago was one of the first and largest municipalities to require public art as part of the renovation or 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.
* When it opened in 1991, the Harold Washington Library Center, with approximately 6.5 million books, was the world’s largest municipal library.
* The Lincoln Park Zoo, one of only three major free zoos in the country, is the country’s oldest public zoo with an estimated annual attendance of three million.
* The Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower) is the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere at 110 stories high.
* The Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower)elevators are among the fastest in the world operating as fast as 1,600 feet per minute.
* Four states are visible from the Skydeck Chicago (formerly the Sears Tower Skydeck). Indiana, Illinois, Michigan & Wisconsin.
* The original Ferris wheel was built on the midway of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition.
* The Adler Planetarium became the first planetarium in the Western Hemisphere in 1930.
* The first Democratic National Convention televised coast-to-coast was held in 1952 at Chicago’s International Amphitheater. (The first televised Democratic National Convention, in 1948, only reached viewers in the Northeast.)
* The first televised U.S. presidential candidates’ debate was broadcast from Chicago’s CBS Studios on September 26, 1960, between John Fitzgerald Kennedy and Richard Milhous Nixon.
* The late Mayor Richard J. Daley and current Mayor Richard M. Daley became the first father-son team to head the United States Conference of Mayors in 1996.
And just for fun... "You know you're from Chicago when..."
You say "Wanna go with?" when you mean "Do you want to come with me?"
You know what Kennedy, Dan Ryan, Eisenhower, Edens, and Bishop Ford, have in common and curse one of them daily.
You know what "the Hillside strangler is."
You can name three or four extra taxes nobody else pays.
You know the difference between Richard J Daley and Richard M Daley.
You can use two or three Daleyisms in context.
You can imitate the Mayor's whine.
You say Chicaaago.
You think going to a Bears game in single digit temperatures with a wind off the lake (and freezing rain) is fun.
You expect corruption in local politics.
You go to the Dells in the summer to get away from the other 20 thousand that followed you.
You've been caught speeding in Wisconsin because you had Illinois plates.
You guard your shoveled parking space with an old chair and unusable broom.
You know why they call it "the Windy City."
You know dead people who voted.
You understand the Democratic machine and don't fight against it.
You've never been to Springfield.
You know a good gyros joint.
You know what Giordanos, Lou Malnati's, and Gino's have in common.
You know when the last time the Cubs won a pennant.
You know exactly how many cars are "legally" allowed to turn left after the light turns red.
You don't know which ethnic "fest" to choose on any given Summer weekend.
Your idea of relaxing and getting away from it all is Ravinia (with 10,000 others who have the same idea).
You can recite many of "The Blues Brothers" lines and know where they filmed certain scenes.
You consider paying someone to watch your car at a sporting event as just another "city tax."
The "Living Room" is called the "front room"
You don't pronounce the "s" at the end of Illinois. You become irate at people who do
You measure distance in minutes (especially "from the city"). And you swear everything is pretty much 15 minutes away
You refer to anything South of I-80 as "Southern Illinois"
You refer to Lake Michigan as "The Lake"
You refer to Chicago as "The City"
"The Super Bowl" refers to one specific game in a series of 35 played in January of 1986
You have two favorite football teams: The Bears, and anyone who beats the Packers!
You buy "The Trib"
You think 35 degrees is great weather to wash your car!
You know what goes on a Chicago Style Hot Dog
You know what Chicago Style Pizza REALLY is
You understand what "lake-effect" means
You know the difference between Amtrak and Metra, and know which station they end up at. You have ridden the "L"
You can distinguish between the following area codes: 847,630,773,708, 312, & 815
You respond to the question "Where are you from" with a side" example:"WEST SIDE", "SOUTH SIDE" or "NORTHSIDE."
You know what the phone number is to Empire Carpet!
You wear gym shoes, not sneakers.
You GOT to have spaghetti at your barbecue.
You are STILL a Bulls fan........
You have ever been to the Tiki Room lounge in Hyde Park
It's January and you see someone's kitchen chair in the street, and you know that if you're a responsible citizen and bring it back to the sidewalk you will be shot on sight
You don't flinch when you pay the fifth toll of your 45-minute car ride on the highway
When you read a big story in the paper about mob ties in the city government, your first reaction is "So, tell me something I don't know."
You know Lincoln Towing is Satan incarnate.
You've paid $105 for towing, $30 for more than one "street cleaning" ticket, $58 for a city vehicle sticker, and $70 for a license plate sticker -- and chalk it all up to "neighborhood taxes."
You've cursed at a cyclist, pedestrian, or in-line skater on the lakefront path.
You know the significance of State and Madison.
You wonder if the fries will taste the same at Sammy Sosa's Restaurant.
You don't miss Planet Hollywood.
When you refer to "LSD" you don't mean the drug
School can get cancelled due to both extreme heat AND cold
You still claim that the Sears Tower is the tallest skyscraper in the world
Peter. Francis. Geraci. (Some Lawyer guy).
You would prefer it if New York just kept Macy's
Enjoy!
* The "Historic Route 66" begins in Chicago at Grant Park on Adams Street in front of the Art Institute of Chicago.
* The Chicagoland area contains nearly 10 million people in three states – Illinois, Wisconsin and Indiana – and is the 22nd largest metropolitan area in the world.
* Chicago is home to eleven Fortune 500 companies, while the rest of the metropolitan area hosts an additional 21 Fortune 500 companies.
* McCormick Place, Chicago’s premier convention center, offers the largest amount of exhibition space in North America (2.2 million square feet).
* 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.
* Chicago’s downtown area is known as “The Loop.” The nickname refers to the area encircled by the elevated (‘L’) train tracks.
* The game of 16-inch softball, which is played without gloves, was invented in Chicago.
* In 1900, Chicago successfully completed a massive and highly innovative engineering project – reversing the flow of the Chicago River so that it emptied into the Mississippi River instead of Lake Michigan. Each year, the Chicago River is dyed green to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.
* The Art Institute of Chicago has one of the largest and most extensive collections of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings in the world.
* Chicago was one of the first and largest municipalities to require public art as part of the renovation or 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.
* When it opened in 1991, the Harold Washington Library Center, with approximately 6.5 million books, was the world’s largest municipal library.
* The Lincoln Park Zoo, one of only three major free zoos in the country, is the country’s oldest public zoo with an estimated annual attendance of three million.
* The Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower) is the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere at 110 stories high.
* The Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower)elevators are among the fastest in the world operating as fast as 1,600 feet per minute.
* Four states are visible from the Skydeck Chicago (formerly the Sears Tower Skydeck). Indiana, Illinois, Michigan & Wisconsin.
* The original Ferris wheel was built on the midway of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition.
* The Adler Planetarium became the first planetarium in the Western Hemisphere in 1930.
* The first Democratic National Convention televised coast-to-coast was held in 1952 at Chicago’s International Amphitheater. (The first televised Democratic National Convention, in 1948, only reached viewers in the Northeast.)
* The first televised U.S. presidential candidates’ debate was broadcast from Chicago’s CBS Studios on September 26, 1960, between John Fitzgerald Kennedy and Richard Milhous Nixon.
* The late Mayor Richard J. Daley and current Mayor Richard M. Daley became the first father-son team to head the United States Conference of Mayors in 1996.
And just for fun... "You know you're from Chicago when..."
You say "Wanna go with?" when you mean "Do you want to come with me?"
You know what Kennedy, Dan Ryan, Eisenhower, Edens, and Bishop Ford, have in common and curse one of them daily.
You know what "the Hillside strangler is."
You can name three or four extra taxes nobody else pays.
You know the difference between Richard J Daley and Richard M Daley.
You can use two or three Daleyisms in context.
You can imitate the Mayor's whine.
You say Chicaaago.
You think going to a Bears game in single digit temperatures with a wind off the lake (and freezing rain) is fun.
You expect corruption in local politics.
You go to the Dells in the summer to get away from the other 20 thousand that followed you.
You've been caught speeding in Wisconsin because you had Illinois plates.
You guard your shoveled parking space with an old chair and unusable broom.
You know why they call it "the Windy City."
You know dead people who voted.
You understand the Democratic machine and don't fight against it.
You've never been to Springfield.
You know a good gyros joint.
You know what Giordanos, Lou Malnati's, and Gino's have in common.
You know when the last time the Cubs won a pennant.
You know exactly how many cars are "legally" allowed to turn left after the light turns red.
You don't know which ethnic "fest" to choose on any given Summer weekend.
Your idea of relaxing and getting away from it all is Ravinia (with 10,000 others who have the same idea).
You can recite many of "The Blues Brothers" lines and know where they filmed certain scenes.
You consider paying someone to watch your car at a sporting event as just another "city tax."
The "Living Room" is called the "front room"
You don't pronounce the "s" at the end of Illinois. You become irate at people who do
You measure distance in minutes (especially "from the city"). And you swear everything is pretty much 15 minutes away
You refer to anything South of I-80 as "Southern Illinois"
You refer to Lake Michigan as "The Lake"
You refer to Chicago as "The City"
"The Super Bowl" refers to one specific game in a series of 35 played in January of 1986
You have two favorite football teams: The Bears, and anyone who beats the Packers!
You buy "The Trib"
You think 35 degrees is great weather to wash your car!
You know what goes on a Chicago Style Hot Dog
You know what Chicago Style Pizza REALLY is
You understand what "lake-effect" means
You know the difference between Amtrak and Metra, and know which station they end up at. You have ridden the "L"
You can distinguish between the following area codes: 847,630,773,708, 312, & 815
You respond to the question "Where are you from" with a side" example:"WEST SIDE", "SOUTH SIDE" or "NORTHSIDE."
You know what the phone number is to Empire Carpet!
You wear gym shoes, not sneakers.
You GOT to have spaghetti at your barbecue.
You are STILL a Bulls fan........
You have ever been to the Tiki Room lounge in Hyde Park
It's January and you see someone's kitchen chair in the street, and you know that if you're a responsible citizen and bring it back to the sidewalk you will be shot on sight
You don't flinch when you pay the fifth toll of your 45-minute car ride on the highway
When you read a big story in the paper about mob ties in the city government, your first reaction is "So, tell me something I don't know."
You know Lincoln Towing is Satan incarnate.
You've paid $105 for towing, $30 for more than one "street cleaning" ticket, $58 for a city vehicle sticker, and $70 for a license plate sticker -- and chalk it all up to "neighborhood taxes."
You've cursed at a cyclist, pedestrian, or in-line skater on the lakefront path.
You know the significance of State and Madison.
You wonder if the fries will taste the same at Sammy Sosa's Restaurant.
You don't miss Planet Hollywood.
When you refer to "LSD" you don't mean the drug
School can get cancelled due to both extreme heat AND cold
You still claim that the Sears Tower is the tallest skyscraper in the world
Peter. Francis. Geraci. (Some Lawyer guy).
You would prefer it if New York just kept Macy's