Here you are in the great shopping district of the second largest city in the United States. This is State Street, one of the many great thoroughfares that parallel the lake shore in the city of Chicago. The estimated population of Chicago in 1915 was almost 2,500,000. This makes it the fourth city in size in the world. London, New York, and Paris are larger. Chicago is by far the youngest of these cities. White men had been over this ground since Marquette spent the winter of 1674-5 on the south branch of the Chicago River. We know, too, that the french once had a fort there. In 1804 Fort Dearborn, a blockhouse, was built. As late as 1830 Chicago was only a small village of log houses. In 1840 it had a population of only 4,170. In 1871 the great Chicago Fire occurred. This swept out a large part of the city then built. From this time, the modern city of Chicago dates. It is only natural that a great city should spring up at the foot of Lake Michigan. The trunk lines of railways coming across the continent from the west would naturally center at the southern end of the lake. Moreover, there must be a great distributing point where steamship lines and railways meet. Again, with all the riches of the Middle West, there would naturally spring up at the most likely shipping point a great distributing center. Chicago is this center. Chicago is the largest center of railroads in the world. Its trunk lines number 26. The added mileage of all these roads amounts to 83,000 miles. It is the greatest center in the world for gathering farm products and sending out these products in manufactured form. This means that it has great packing houses, flouring mills, factories that make corn products, etc. It easily leads every other city in making food products. Name some of the chief products of Chicago. Keystone ID: 2337 Note: All titles, descriptions, and location coordinates are from the original Keystone Slide documentation as supplied by the Keystone View Company. No text has been edited or changed.