"Chicago Story" is a history E-book and music video produced by Al Young. Al is an historian and musician from Chicago.
CHAPTER 1 (Chicago 1833 to 1899)
On August 12, 1833, the Town of Chicago was organized with a population of about 200. Within seven years it grew to more than 6,000 people. On June 15, 1835, the first public land sales began with Edmund Dick Taylor as Receiver of Public Monies. The City of Chicago was incorporated on Saturday, March 4, 1837, and for several decades was the world's fastest-growing city.
As the site of the Chicago Portage, the city became an important transportation hub between the eastern and western United States. Chicago's first railway, Galena and Chicago Union Railroad, and the Illinois and Michigan Canal opened in 1848. The canal allowed steamboats and sailing ships on the Great Lakes to connect to the Mississippi River.
A flourishing economy brought residents from rural communities and immigrants from abroad. Manufacturing and retail and finance sectors became dominant, influencing the American economy. The Chicago Board of Trade (established 1848) listed the first-ever standardized "exchange-traded" forward contracts, which were called futures contracts.
In the 1850s, Chicago gained national political prominence as the home of Senator Stephen Douglas, the champion of the Kansas–Nebraska Act and the "popular sovereignty" approach to the issue of the spread of slavery. These issues also helped propel another Illinoisan, Abraham Lincoln, to the national stage. Lincoln was nominated in Chicago for U.S. president at the 1860 Republican National Convention, which was held in a purpose-built auditorium called the Wigwam. He defeated Douglas in the general election, and this set the stage for the American Civil War.
To accommodate rapid population growth and demand for better sanitation, the city improved its infrastructure. In February 1856, Chicago's Common Council approved Chesbrough's plan to build the United States' first comprehensive sewerage system. The project raised much of central Chicago to a new grade with the use of jackscrews for raising buildings. While elevating Chicago, and at first improving the city's health, the untreated sewage and industrial waste now flowed into the Chicago River, and subsequently into Lake Michigan, polluting the city's primary freshwater source.
The city responded by tunneling two miles out into Lake Michigan to newly built water cribs. In 1900, the problem of sewage contamination was largely resolved when the city completed a major engineering feat. It reversed the flow of the Chicago River so that the water flowed away from Lake Michigan rather than into it. This project began with the construction and improvement of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, and was completed with the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal that connects to the Illinois River, which flows into the Mississippi River.
In 1871, the Great Chicago Fire destroyed an area about 4 miles long and 1-mile wide, a large section of the city at the time. Much of the city, including railroads and stockyards, survived intact, and from the ruins of the previous wooden structures arose more modern constructions of steel and stone. These set a precedent for worldwide construction. During its rebuilding period, Chicago constructed the world's first skyscraper in 1885, using steel-skeleton construction.
The city grew significantly in size and population by incorporating many neighboring townships between 1851 and 1920, with the largest annexation happening in 1889, with five townships joining the city, including the Hyde Park Township, which now comprises most of the South Side of Chicago and the far southeast of Chicago, and the Jefferson Township, which now makes up most of Chicago's Northwest Side. The desire to join the city was driven by municipal services that the city could provide its residents.
Chicago's flourishing economy attracted huge numbers of new immigrants from Europe and migrants from the Eastern United States. Of the total population in 1900, more than 77% were either foreign-born or born in the United States of foreign parentage. Germans, Irish, Poles, Swedes, and Czechs made up nearly two-thirds of the foreign-born population (by 1900, whites were 98.1% of the city's population).
Labor conflicts followed the industrial boom and the rapid expansion of the labor pool, including the Haymarket affair on May 4, 1886, and in 1894 the Pullman Strike. Anarchist and socialist groups played prominent roles in creating very large and highly organized labor actions. Concern for social problems among Chicago's immigrant poor led Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr to found Hull House in 1889. Programs that were developed there became a model for the new field of social work.
During the 1870s and 1880s, Chicago attained national stature as the leader in the movement to improve public health. City laws and later, state laws that upgraded standards for the medical profession and fought urban epidemics of cholera, smallpox, and yellow fever were both passed and enforced. These laws became templates for public health reform in other cities and states.
The city established many large, well-landscaped municipal parks, which also included public sanitation facilities. The chief advocate for improving public health in Chicago was John H. Rauch, M.D. Rauch established a plan for Chicago's park system in 1866. He created Lincoln Park by closing a cemetery filled with shallow graves, and in 1867, in response to an outbreak of cholera he helped establish a new Chicago Board of Health. Ten years later, he became the secretary and then the president of the first Illinois State Board of Health, which carried out most of its activities in Chicago.
In the 1800s, Chicago became the nation's railroad hub, and by 1910 over 20 railroads operated passenger service out of six different downtown terminals. In 1883, Chicago's railway managers needed a general time convention, so they developed the standardized system of North American time zones. This system for telling time spread throughout the continent.
In 1893, Chicago hosted the World's Columbian Exposition on former marshland at the present location of Jackson Park. The Exposition drew 27.5 million visitors, and is considered the most influential world's fair in history. The University of Chicago, formerly at another location, moved to the same South Side location in 1892. The term "midway" for a fair or carnival referred originally to the Midway Plaisance, a strip of park land that still runs through the University of Chicago campus and connects the Washington and Jackson Parks.
CHAPTER 2 (Chicago 1900 to 1939)
The ratification of the 18th amendment to the Constitution in 1919 made the production and sale (including exportation) of alcoholic beverages illegal in the United States. This ushered in the beginning of what is known as the gangster era, a time that roughly spans from 1919 until 1933 when Prohibition was repealed. The 1920s saw gangsters, including Al Capone, Dion O'Banion, Bugs Moran and Tony Accardo battle law enforcement and each other on the streets of Chicago during the Prohibition era. Chicago was the location of the infamous St. Valentine's Day Massacre in 1929, when Al Capone sent men to gun down members of a rival gang, North Side, led by Bugs Moran.
From 1920 to 1921, the city was affected by a series of tenant rent strikes, which lead to the formation of the Chicago Tenants Protective association, passage of the Kessenger tenant laws, and of a heat ordinance that legally required flats to be kept above 68 °F during winter months by landlords.
The Great Depression brought unprecedented suffering to Chicago, in no small part due to the city's heavy reliance on heavy industry. Notably, industrial areas on the south side and neighborhoods lining both branches of the Chicago River were devastated; by 1933 over 50% of industrial jobs in the city had been lost. The Republican political machine in Chicago was utterly destroyed by the economic crisis, and every mayor since 1931 has been a Democrat.
From 1928 to 1933, the city witnessed a tax revolt, and the city was unable to meet payroll or provide relief efforts. The fiscal crisis was resolved by 1933, and at the same time, federal relief funding began to flow into Chicago. Chicago was also a hotbed of labor activism, with Unemployed Councils contributing heavily in the early depression to create solidarity for the poor and demand relief. By 1935 the Workers Alliance of America begun organizing the poor, workers, the unemployed. In the spring of 1937 Republic Steel Works witnessed the Memorial Day massacre of 1937 in the neighborhood of East Side.
In 1933, Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak was fatally wounded in Miami, Florida, during a failed assassination attempt on President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt. In 1933 and 1934, the city celebrated its centennial by hosting the Century of Progress International Exposition World's Fair. The theme of the fair was technological innovation over the century since Chicago's founding.
CHAPTER 3 (Chicago 1940 to 1979)
On December 2, 1942, physicist Enrico Fermi conducted the world's first controlled nuclear reaction at the University of Chicago as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project. This led to the creation of the atomic bomb by the United States, which it used in World War II in 1945.
Mayor Richard J. Daley, a Democrat, was elected in 1955, in the era of machine politics. In 1956, the city conducted its last major expansion when it annexed the land under O'Hare airport, including a small portion of DuPage County.
Structural changes in industry, such as globalization and job outsourcing, caused heavy job losses for lower-skilled workers. At its peak during the 1960s, some 250,000 workers were employed in the steel industry in Chicago, but the steel crisis of the 1970s and 1980s reduced this number to just 28,000 in 2015. In 1966, Martin Luther King Jr. and Albert Raby led the Chicago Freedom Movement, which culminated in agreements between Mayor Richard J. Daley and the movement leaders.
Two years later, the city hosted the tumultuous 1968 Democratic National Convention, which featured physical confrontations both inside and outside the convention hall, with anti-war protesters, journalists and bystanders being beaten by police. Major construction projects, including the Sears Tower (now known as the Willis Tower, which in 1974 became the world's tallest building), University of Illinois at Chicago, McCormick Place, and O'Hare International Airport, were undertaken during Richard J. Daley's tenure. In 1979, Jane Byrne, the city's first female mayor, was elected. She was notable for temporarily moving into the Cabrini-Green housing project and for leading Chicago's school system out of a financial crisis.
CHAPTER 4 (Chicago 1980 to 2024)
Richard M. Daley, son of Richard J. Daley, was elected in 1989. His accomplishments included improvements to parks and creating incentives for sustainable development, as well as closing Meigs Field in the middle of the night and destroying the runways. After successfully running for re-election five times, and becoming Chicago's longest-serving mayor, Richard M. Daley declined to run for a seventh term.
In 1992, a construction accident near the Kinzie Street Bridge produced a breach connecting the Chicago River to a tunnel below, which was part of an abandoned freight tunnel system extending throughout the downtown Loop district. The tunnels filled with 250 million US gallons of water, affecting buildings throughout the district and forcing a shutdown of electrical power. The area was shut down for three days and some buildings did not reopen for weeks; losses were estimated at $1.95 billion.
On February 23, 2011, Rahm Emanuel, a former White House Chief of Staff and member of the House of Representatives, won the mayoral election. Emanuel was sworn in as mayor on May 16, 2011, and won re-election in 2015. Lori Lightfoot, the city's first African American woman mayor, was elected to succeed Emanuel as mayor in 2019. All three city-wide elective offices were held by women for the first time in Chicago history: in addition to Lori Lightfoot, the city clerk was Anna Valencia and the city treasurer was Melissa Conyears-Ervin.
On May 15, 2023, Brandon Johnson assumed office as the 57th mayor of Chicago.
CHAPTER 5 - The Magnificent Mile
The Magnificent Mile (also The Mag Mile) is a section of Michigan Avenue in Chicago devoted to retail, dining, hotels and tourist attractions. Running from the Chicago River to Oak Street in the Near North Side, the district is located one block east of Rush Street and is the main retail corridor between the Loop and Gold Coast. It is bounded by Streeterville neighborhood to its east and River North to its west.
The real estate developer Arthur Rubloff of Rubloff Company gave the district its nickname in 1947. The Magnificent Mile has many tall buildings and landmarks such as John Hancock, Wrigley Building, Tribune Tower, Chicago Water Tower, and the Allerton, Drake and Intercontinental Hotels.
History
After the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, State Street (anchored by Marshall Field's) in the downtown Loop, especially the Loop Retail Historic District, was the city's retailing center. The convenience of mass transit including streetcars and elevated trains, supported a retail corridor along State Street from Lake Street to Van Buren Street.
By the 1920s, commuter suburbs began to have significant retail districts. Prior to the bascule bridge construction, swing bridges across the river were open for ship traffic during half the daylight hours. The Rush Street Bridge was the swing bridge for this area. The opening of the Michigan Avenue Bridge in 1920 created a new commercial district.
The concept for the Magnificent Mile was part of the 1909 Burnham Plan of Chicago. It was constructed during the 1920s to replace Pine Street, which had been lined with factories and warehouses near the river, and fine mansion and rowhouse residences farther north. The earliest building constructions varied in style, but challenged new heights in construction. The name the "Magnificent Mile" is a registered trademark of The Magnificent Mile Association, formerly the Greater North Michigan Avenue Association (GNMAA).
After the Great Depression and World War II, Arthur Rubloff and William Zeckendorf bought or controlled most of the property along this stretch of the avenue and supported a plan by Holabird & Root for construction of new buildings and renovation of old ones that took advantage of new zoning laws. Soon the property values driven by the luxury shopping districts were pricing out the nearby artists of Tower Town, just southwest of the Chicago Water Tower.
Rubloff and Zeckendorf successfully developed and promoted the area until it became one of the most prestigious addresses of the city. That distinction holds today, and spurred new investment along the Magnificent Mile and throughout the Near North Side.
After 1950, suburban development reduced the Loop's daily significance to many Chicagoans as downtown retail sales slipped. However, the Magnificent Mile kept a luxury shopping district close to the central business district. The opening of the 74-story Water Tower Place in 1975 marked the return of Chicago to retailing prominence. By 1979, the State Street commercial corridor had lost its commercial vitality and was closed to street traffic for renovation including sidewalk widening until 1996.
Description
Today, The Magnificent Mile contains a mixture of upscale department stores, restaurants, luxury retailers, residential and commercial buildings, financial services companies, and hotels, catering primarily to tourists and the affluent. The Magnificent Mile includes 3.1 million sq ft. of retail space, 460 stores, 275 restaurants, 51 hotels, and a host of sightseeing and entertainment attractions to more than 22 million visitors annually.
The American Planning Association selected The Magnificent Mile as one of the 10 Great Streets for 2007 through its Great Places in America program. In recent years, The Magnificent Mile has added trees and flower-filled medians to reflect the changing seasons.
Retail
Many luxury brands moved to Oak Street in the years following the 2007–2008 financial crisis, but The Magnificent Mile still hosts luxury department stores Bloomingdale's, Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Nordstrom. Retailers on The Magnificent Mile include: Canada Goose, Cartier, Bottega Veneta, Bulgari, Burberry (its U.S. flagship location), Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Tiffany & Co., Max Mara, St. John, Omega, Stuart Weitzman, Montblanc, Anne Fontaine, Alice+Olivia, Rolex, Ralph Lauren (Ralph Lauren's largest store in the world), Kate Spade, Eskandar, Charles David, Henri Bendel, Hugo Boss, Salvatore Ferragamo, American Girl, Ermenegildo Zegna, Zara, MCM, Tumi, Kiehl's, Michael Kors, J. Crew, Sermoneta, H&M, Marlowe, Paul Stuart, David Yurman, Fogal, Wolford, The Art of Shaving, BHLDN, Buccellati, Victoria's Secret, Banana Republic, Starbucks Reserve Roastery (largest Starbucks in the world), Frette, Pratesi, and many others.
The Magnificent Mile has three urban shopping centers: Water Tower Place, The Shops at North Bridge, and 900 North Michigan Shops. Each spans multiple floors and city blocks and offers various tenants: mall mainstays and more upscale apparel shops, restaurants, and unique attractions, such as museums. In its book The 10 Best of Everything: An Ultimate Guide for Travelers, National Geographic named The Magnificent Mile along with Rodeo Drive and Fifth Avenue as one of the 10 best shopping avenues in the world.
Hotels and dining
Renowned and critically acclaimed restaurants such as The Signature Room at The 95th, Spiaggia, Tru, The Pump Room, Lawry's The Prime Rib, The Grand Lux, and The Park Hyatt Room provide a variety of dining options. Three 5-star hotels (The Peninsula Chicago, Four Seasons Hotel Chicago, and Ritz-Carlton Chicago) and Illinois' only 4-star hotel (Park Hyatt) are located within about five blocks along The Magnificent Mile. Other hotels such as Intercontinental, Knickerbocker, Westin, Drake Hotel, and the Conrad Chicago offer convenient luxurious accommodations as well.
CHAPTER 6 - The Loop
The Loop is Chicago's central business district and one of the city's 77 municipally recognized community areas. Located at the center of downtown Chicago on the shores of Lake Michigan, it is the second-largest business district in North America after Midtown Manhattan. The headquarters and regional offices of several global and national businesses, retail establishments, restaurants, hotels, and theaters–as well as many of Chicago's most famous attractions–are located in the Loop. The neighborhood also hosts Chicago's City Hall, the seat of Cook County, offices of other levels of government, and several foreign consulates. The intersection of State Street and Madison Street in the Loop is the origin point for the address system on Chicago's street grid.
The Loop's definition and perceived boundaries have developed over time. Since the 1920s, the area bounded by the Chicago River to the west and north, Lake Michigan to the east, and Roosevelt Road (12th Street) to the south is called the Loop. It took its name from a somewhat smaller area, which meant the 35 city blocks bounded on the north by Lake Street, on the west by Wells Street, on the south by Van Buren Street, and on the east by Wabash Avenue—the Union Loop formed by the 'L' in the late 1800s. Similarly, "South" and "West Loop" historically referred to areas within the Loop proper, but in the 21st century began to refer to the entire Near South and much of the Near West Sides of the city, respectively.
In 1803, the United States Army built Fort Dearborn in what is now the Loop; although earlier settlement was present, this was first settlement in the area sponsored by the United States' federal government. When Chicago and Cook County were incorporated in the 1830s, the area was selected as the site of their respective seats. Originally mixed-use, the neighborhood became increasingly commercial in the 1870s. This process accelerated in the aftermath of the 1871 Great Chicago Fire, which destroyed most of the neighborhood's buildings. Some of the world's earliest skyscrapers were constructed in the Loop, giving rise to the Chicago School of architecture. By the late 19th century, cable car turnarounds and the Union Loop encircled the area, giving the neighborhood its name. Near the lake, Grant Park "Chicago's front yard" is Chicago's oldest park but was significantly expanded in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and houses a number of features and museums. Starting in the 1920s, road improvements for highways were constructed to and into the Loop, perhaps most famously U.S. Route 66, which opened in 1926.
While dominated by offices and public buildings, its residential population boomed during the latter 20th century and first decades of the 21st, partly due to the development of former rail yards (at one time, the area had six major interurban railroad terminals and land was also needed for extensive rail cargo storage and transfer), industrial lands, as well as highrise residences. Since 1950, the Loop's population has increased the most out of all of Chicago's community areas.
History
The origin of the name "the Loop" is disputed. Some sources claim it first referred to two cable car lines that used a circuit–constructed in 1882 and bounded by Van Buren Street, Wabash Avenue, Wells Street, and Lake Street–to enter and depart the downtown area. Other research, however, has concluded that "the Loop" was not used as a proper noun until after the 1895–97 construction of the Union Loop used by 'L' trains, which shared the same route.
19th century
In what is now the Loop, on the south bank of the Chicago River near today's Michigan Avenue Bridge, the United States Army erected Fort Dearborn in 1803, the first settlement in the area sponsored by the United States.
When Chicago was initially platted in 1830 by the surveyor James Thompson, it included what is now the Loop north of Madison Street and west of State Street. The Sauganash Hotel, the first hotel in Chicago, was built in 1831 near Wolf Point at what is now the northwestern corner of the Loop. When Cook County was incorporated in 1831, the first meeting of its government was held at Fort Dearborn with two representatives from Chicago and one from Naperville.
The entirety of what is now the Loop was part of the Town of Chicago when it was initially incorporated in 1833, except for the Fort Dearborn reservation that became part of the city in 1839 and land reclaimed from Lake Michigan.
The area was bustling by the end of the 1830s. Lake Street started to be a center for retail at that time, until it was eclipsed by State Street in the 1850s.
20th century
By 1948 an estimated one million people came to and went from the Loop each day. Afterwards, suburbanization caused a decrease in the area's importance. Starting in the 1960s, however, the presence of an upscale shopping district caused the area's fortunes to increase.
21st century
The Loop's population has boomed in recent years, having a 158 percent population increase between 2000 and 2020. Between 2010 and 2014, the number of jobs in The Loop increased by nearly 63,000 jobs, or an increase of over 13%.
Economy of Chicago
The Loop, along with the rest of downtown Chicago, is the second largest commercial business district in the United States after New York City's Midtown Manhattan. Its financial district near LaSalle Street is home to United Airlines, Hyatt Hotels & Resorts, and CME Group's Chicago Board of Trade and Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
Aon Corporation maintains an office in the Aon Center. Chase Tower houses the headquarters of Exelon. United Airlines has its headquarters in Willis Tower, having moved its headquarters to Chicago from suburban Elk Grove Township in early 2007. Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association has its headquarters in the Michigan Plaza complex.
The Chicago Loop Alliance is located at 55 West Monroe. The Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce is located in an office in the Aon Center, the French-American Chamber of Commerce in Chicago has an office in 35 East Wacker, the Netherlands Chamber of Commerce in the United States is located in an office at 303 East Wacker Drive, and the US Mexico Chamber of Commerce Mid-America Chapter is located in an office in One Prudential Plaza.
McDonald's was headquartered in the Loop until 1971, when it moved to suburban Oak Brook. When Bank One Corporation existed, its headquarters were in the Bank One Plaza, which is now Chase Tower. When Amoco existed, its headquarters were in the Amoco Building, which is now the Aon Center.
In 2019, about 40 percent of Loop residents were also employed in the Loop, and 26.8 percent worked outside of Chicago. Respectively 11.5, 8.0, and 2.8 percent worked in the Near North Side, the Near West Side, and Hyde Park. Conversely, 45.5 percent of the people employed in the Loop lived outside of Chicago. Lake View housed 4 percent of Loop employees, the highest percentage of any of Chicago's community areas. The Near North Side, West Town, and Lincoln Park respectively housed 3.8, 2.6, and 2.5 percent of those working in the Loop.
The professional sector is the largest source of employment of both Loop residents and Loop employees, at respectively 21.4 and 23.3 percent. Finance was the second most common employment for both groups, at respectively 13.5 and 17.7 percent. Health Care was the third largest sector for residents at 10.2 percent while Education was the third largest sector for Loop employees at 13 percent. Education was the fourth largest employer of residents at 9.4 percent while Public Administration was the fourth largest for Loop employees at 13 percent. Administration was the fifth largest sector for both groups, at respectively 6.9 and 7.3 percent.
Architecture
The area has long been a hub for architecture. The vast majority of the area was destroyed by the Great Chicago Fire in 1871 but rebuilt quickly. In 1885 the Home Insurance Building, generally considered the world's first skyscraper, was constructed, followed by the development of the Chicago school best exemplified by such buildings as the Rookery Building in 1888, the Monadnock Building in 1891, and the Sullivan Center in 1899.
Loop architecture has been dominated by skyscrapers and high-rises since early in its history. Notable buildings include the Home Insurance Building, considered the world's first skyscraper (demolished in 1931); the Chicago Board of Trade Building, a National Historic Landmark; and Willis Tower, the world's tallest building for nearly 25 years. Some of the historic buildings in this district were instrumental in the development of towers.
This area abounds in shopping opportunities, including the Loop Retail Historic District, although it competes with the more upscale Magnificent Mile area to the north. It includes Chicago's former Marshall Field's department store location in the Marshall Field and Company Building; the original Sullivan Center Carson Pirie Scott store location (closed February 21, 2007). Chicago's Downtown Theatre District is also found within this area, along with numerous restaurants and hotels.
Chicago has a famous skyline which features many of the tallest buildings in the world as well as the Chicago Landmark Historic Michigan Boulevard District. Chicago's skyline is spaced out throughout the downtown area. The Willis Tower, formerly known as the Sears Tower, the third tallest building in the Western Hemisphere (and still second-tallest by roof height), stands in the western Loop in the heart of the city's financial district, along with other buildings, such as 311 South Wacker Drive and the AT&T Corporate Center.
Chicago's fourth tallest building, the Aon Center, is located just south of Illinois Center. The complex is at the east end of the Loop, east of Michigan Avenue. Two Prudential Plaza is also located here, just to the west of the Aon Center.
The Loop contains a wealth of outdoor sculpture, including works by Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró, Henry Moore, Marc Chagall, Magdalena Abakanowicz, Alexander Calder, and Jean Dubuffet. Chicago's cultural heavyweights, such as the Art Institute of Chicago, the Goodman Theatre, the Chicago Theatre, the Lyric Opera at the Civic Opera House building, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, are also in this area, as is the historic Palmer House Hilton hotel, found on East Monroe Street.
Chicago's waterfront, which is almost exclusively recreational beach and park areas from north to south, features Grant Park in the downtown area. Grant Park is the home of Buckingham Fountain, the Petrillo Music Shell, the Grant Park Symphony (where free concerts can be enjoyed throughout the summer), and Chicago's annual two-week food festival, the Taste of Chicago, where more than 3 million people try foods from over 70 vendors. The area also hosts the annual music festival Lollapalooza which features popular alternative rock, heavy metal, EDM, hip hop, and punk rock, artists. Millennium Park, which is a section of Grant Park, opened in the summer of 2004 and features Frank Gehry's Jay Pritzker Pavilion, Jaume Plensa's Crown Fountain, and Anish Kapoor's Cloud Gate sculpture along Lake Michigan.
The Chicago River and its accompanying Chicago Riverwalk, which delineates the area, also provides entertainment and recreational opportunities, including the annual dyeing of the river green in honor of St. Patrick's Day. Trips down the Chicago River, including architectural tours, by commercial boat operators, are great favorites with both locals and tourists alike.