Õàðàêòåðèñòèêà ×èêàãî

Ñòðàíèöà: 2/5

SKY-SCRAPERS IN THE PRAIRIE

When you arrive in Chicago, you may find it hard to believe that this busy, noisy, modern metropolis with its towering sky-scrapers was until well into the 19th century a muddy onion swamp. But by 1871 this unprom­ising site had become a city of 300,000, the metropolitan centre of the American Midwest. Then, on October 8 of that year, disaster struck. It all began in the barn of a certain Mrs. O'Leary on West De Koven Street where, as the legend goes, a cow kicked over a kerosene lantern, starting a fire that quickly swept the city. The blaze destroyed more than 17,000 buildings that left third of the city's people homeless. Yet in one sense this tragedy was responsible for Chicago's main contribution to the devel­opment of modern architecture. The fire levelled the entire business dis­trict, and the city's engineers and architects •. had to rebuild from the ground up. Armed with a series of technological innovations—most notably steel framework and the hydraulic, lift—they set to work and in the last decades of the 19th century the sky-scraper was born William-Le Barren Jenny, one of the construction engineers, used this new method when he received the commission to build the Chicago office of the Home Insurance Com­pany. It was ten stories high, much taller than any building ever before erected.

The building was the first "sky-scraper", a term now so common for a high building that few people realize that, to begin with, a "sky­scraper" was a triangular sail used high on the mast of sailing vessels be­fore steamships came into use.15 Quickly a new Chicago arose of brick and stone. Within a year the business district was restored along the crescent formed by Lake Michigan in the city's west. Here lies America's second-ranking canyon of finance, La Salle Street, where the Board of Trade Building towers above a forest of sky-scrapers. Each sky-scraper is stamped by a specific commodity: the Wrigley equals chewing-gum, the "Chicago Tribune" and the "Daily News" mean newspapers, the Continental Illinois—banking, the Chicago Temple—offices of reputed firms, the Merchandise Mart—wholesale dry goods, the imposing Marshal Field—department store de luxe, and so on. Each building stands as if a huge monument to a trust. While you ride through Chicago you have an opportunity to see a little of the city. The streets are usually crowded with traffic at whatever hour you arrive. Over your head thunders the local elevated train, which runs on a platform. If your route takes you near the shore of Lake Michigan, you will see a broad boulevard along the water-front with eight lanes of fast-moving traffic. Beautiful, tall office buildings and hotels make a spectacular picture against the blue waters of the lake. If your route lay further back from the lake, you would see narrow, crowded streets lined with rows and rows of red-brick houses.

Vegetable sellers may push little carts through the streets and call out \the names of things for safe in any one of a number of languages. \ One of Chicago's many nicknames is the "Windy City", and despite me US Weather Bureau, which lists Chicago as only the nation's 19th windiest, it richly deserves this nickname—as you will soon agree if you a\e caught on a Chicago street corner when an icy January gale screams oflf Lake Michigan. Wind is not the only extreme characteristic of the lo^al weather. Chicago is noted for its subzero (Fahrenheit) temperatures in winter and 90°-plus temperatures in summer. And don't be misled if you arrive in winter and it seems unreasonably warm. Chicago weather changes quickly.

THE CENTRE OF CLASS WARS

The most proletarian of American cities, Chicago was a scene of bitter labour wars, of the Haymarket affair (1886) and of the Pullman strike (1894). .

Called the "Red Square" of Chicago, Haymarket has become world-famous for the Haymarket affair of 1886. (The official US history books call it the "Haymarket Riot".)

The spring of 1886 was marked by a national strike movement for the 8-hour working day. At the giant McCormick Harvester plant in Chicago, six striking workers were killed by the police. A mass meeting for May the 4th was called in the Haymarket. Suddenly the crowded square shook with the explosion of a bomb thrown by an unknown hand. Seven policemen and four workers were killed, and many were injured. Amid wild hysteria eight labour leaders were arrested. All eight arrested workers were convicted in what is now commonly recognized as a frame-up. Four of them—Parsons, Spies, Fischer and Engel—were hanged. Five years later, Governor John Altgeld of Illinois, a rare type in US politics, freed the four Haymarketers remaining in prison and proclaimed their innocence. The movement for the 8-hour working day and the Haymarket affair caused a great swell of trade-union organization. Furthermore International May Day emerged from this movement, for the Interna­tional Socialist Congress, convened in France in 1889, declared May the 1st as the day of celebration by world labour. A monument in honour of the Haymarket martyrs, erected by the labour movement, now stands in Waldheim Cemetery outside Chicago. The Chicago police have not forgotten Haymarket either. In fact, they put up. a monument on the site of the tragedy. Not to the victims, but to their executioners: a 3-metre statue of a policeman was put up on a tall pedestal in the hope, apparently, that the people of Chicago would cover it with flowers in token of their respect. There were no flowers, but there were bombs. In fact, the "New York Times" remarked that this was "Chicago's most frequently bombed statue". There was a series of explosions in October 1969 in protest against the police attack on a youth demonstration during the Democratic Party convention. A year later there was another explosion; it cost $ 5,500 to repair the damage. Guarding the statue became a problem. In 1970, after it had been repaired, it was placed under round-the-clock guard. To make double-sure, it was constantly scrutinized by a hidden TV camera., This cost the city $ 68,000 a year, more than the statue had cost. There were several suggestions how to reduce the cost. 'In the end, it was decided to/ remove the bronze statue from Haymarket Square and put it in a safe place. It now stands in the lobby of Chicago police headquarters.

Ðåôåðàò îïóáëèêîâàí: 18/03/2006