Chicago

Chicago (i/ʃɪˈkɑːɡoʊ/ or /ʃɪˈkɔːɡoʊ/) is the third most populous city in the United States. Located in the State of Illinois, the city has approximately 2.7 million residents. Its metropolitan area, sometimes called "Chicagoland", is the third-largest in the United States, after New York City and Los Angeles, with an estimated 9.8 million people. Chicago is the county seat of Cook County, though a small portion of the city limits also extend into DuPage County.

Chicago was incorporated as a city in 1837, near a portage between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River watershed. Today, Chicago is listed as an alpha+ global city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network, and ranks seventh in the world in the 2012 Global Cities Index. The city is an international hub for finance, commerce, industry, telecommunications, and transportation, with O'Hare International Airport being the second-busiest airport in the world in terms of traffic movements.

In 2008, Chicago hosted 45.6 million domestic and overseas visitors. Among metropolitan areas, Chicago has the fourth-largest gross domestic product (GDP) in the world, just behind Tokyo, New York City, and Los Angeles, and ranking ahead of London and Paris. Chicago is one of the most important Worldwide Centers of Commerce and trade.

Chicago's notability has found expression in numerous forms of popular culture, including novels, plays, movies, songs, various types of journals (for example, sports, entertainment, business, trade, and academic), and the news media. The city has many nicknames, which reflect the impressions and opinions about historical and contemporary Chicago. The best known include: "Chi-town", "Windy City," "Second City", "Hog Butcher for the World" and the "City of Big Shoulders".

Read more about Chicago:  Etymology, History, Culture and Contemporary Life, Economy, Demographics, Law and Government, Transportation, Sister Cities

Famous quotes containing the word chicago:

    Ethnic life in the United States has become a sort of contest like baseball in which the blacks are always the Chicago Cubs.
    Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)

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    Advertisement. Aired August 8, 1994 by Tom Snyder on TV station CNBC. Chicago Sun Times, p. 11 (July 24, 1994)

    You want to get Capone? Here’s how you get him: he pulls a knife, you pull a gun, he sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. It’s the Chicago way and that’s how you get Capone.
    David Mamet, U.S. screenwriter, and Brian DePalma. Jimmy Malone (Sean Connery)