Chicago, Illinois

Chicago, Illinois

Chicago was the third most populous city in the United States pre-WWIII. The Chicago metropolitan area, often referred to as Chicagoland, was home to nearly 10 million people and was the third-largest in the U.S.

Chicago was incorporated as a city in 1837 CE, near a portage between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River watershed, and experienced rapid growth in the mid-nineteenth century CE. The city also was an international hub for finance, commerce, industry, technology, telecommunications, and transportation, with O'Hare International Airport being the busiest airport on Terra; it also had the largest number of U.S. highways and railroad freight. Chicago was listed as an alpha global city and ranked seventh in the world in the 2014 CE Global Cities Index.

Chicago's culture included contributions to the visual arts, novels, film, theater, especially improvisational comedy, and music, particularly jazz, blues, soul, and house music. The city had many nicknames, which reflect the impressions and opinions about historical and contemporary Chicago. The best-known included the "Windy City" and the "Second City". Chicago had professional sports teams in each of the major professional leagues.

Major unrest in the city during Terra’s WWIII only caused moderate damage. Much more severe was the economic damage brought on by the war. Its finance, commerce, entertainment and telecommunications industries collapsed and never recovered.

Today, Chicago is primarily an industry, technology and transportation center with a large class A port tying into Terra’s North America transport network.