Chicago Sept 8 - 10

We voyaged across Lake Michigan on a cool day. I cut across the bottom of the lake which meant we were out of sight of land for a few hours until the Chicago Skyline started coming into view. Due to foggy conditions we didn't get the best view, but it was still impressive. We stayed at the DuSable Marina which was right downtown Chicago.










We arrived early enough in the day that we had some time in the afternoon, so we decided to walk over to the Navy Pier. This pier was originally used for lake freighters. Over the last 60 years it has had multiple uses but more recently has become a convention and entertainment center.












One exhibit we wanted to see at the Navy Pier was the Stained Glass Window Museum. This was a free museum provide by a family that had begun buying/rescuing stained glass windows 30-40 years ago when many old Victorian homes were starting to be torn down in Chicago. At the beginning of the 20th Century Chicago had 50 producers of stained glass windows. They were very popular in the houses of that day.








The images I captured were only a small portion of the display.







































While we were strolling around the Navy Pier we stopped to rest and a lady offered to take our picture. There we are like two tourist on a holiday.















Kaye decided that she could get more conversation out of Bob Newhart than me, so joined him on the couch. Bob, of course, is the famous son of Chicago and his first Bob Newhart show was set in Chicago.










The next day I took off to tour the downtown. Kaye decided that there would be more walking than she could stand and she was right. I hiked several miles in seeing the sites. The sky was dominated by tall buildings. (Which reminds me of a song by the immortal John Hartford, "In Tall Buildings" about leaving the outdoors and going to work "in tall buildings.")









The El or Elevated train makes a circle in downtown - the famous loop. The raised tracks are supported by a massive iron framework. But it made it hard to figure out where to get on the train. I walked around several blocks trying to find a particular stop on the Red Train route. I wanted to check out where I would pick up the train to take out to the Chicago White Sox baseball field,







The Chicago Sanitary Canal goes right through downtown. This was the route that I intended to take south passing under some 40 bridges. Tour boats take tourists for a trip to see the bridges and buildings.

In 1830 US Government Surveyors plotted the proposed Illinois and Michigan Canal with two towns, Chicago and Ottawa, which led to Chicago being organized as a town in 1833.






The decision to go to the White Sox game was sort of last minute. I had to figure out what train, how to get tickets, and at which stops to board and exit. The field is south of downtown out past China Town. I enjoyed seeing Chicago play the Oakland A's but the game was tied after 9 and I had told Kaye I would be back at the boat by 11:00 so after 11 innings I left (the game went to 13 innings before Chicago won.)

The next day I took another hike around town. The texture and design of the buildings were particularly interesting.

In 1682, French explorer Robert Chavelier visits the "Portage de Checagou" a Potawatomie word meaning "wild onion" or "garlic". Chicago is the only large city in the world named for a vegetable.

One building that was more impressive on the inside was the Chicago Cultural center. It had served as a library and other functions over the years. The interior had this beautiful marble. There were two stained glass dome ceilings including one done by Tiffany.

This was in the GAR (Grand Army of the Republic) room.

The old Marshall Field department store has a center atrium that goes up through the center of the store for over 7 stories.

As the sign says, Chicago has more movable bridges than any other city in the world. They maintain 32 bridges of which most are on the path we will take to the Illinois River.

At the McCormick Bridgehouse and Chicago River Museum at the Michigan Avenue bridge, I learned that to operate the bascule bridges there is a small electric motor (roughly 25 HP) and a set of gears to pivot open each half of the bridge. There are counterbalancing weights so the motor is just overcoming the friction and inertia of the bridge half which weighs 4,100 tons. The "balance" is so sensitive that when they paint the bridge they have to adjust the counterweights to compensate for the weight change.
These gears are for the Michigan Avenue bridge which sits at the site of Fort Dearborn erected in 1803.

WGN radio (and TV) is famous and the building bearing their name is suitable impressive and as I recall was the Tribune Tower, as in Chicago Tribune.

A short distance away was the Pritzker Military Library. I have heard about it for many years and enjoyed a short visit to the extensive book military book collection.