Blus Alexander – 32
group
Kiev 2002
The United States of America is a very
diverse country.
Its nature, climate, population varies
from the East Coast to the west, from the northern border to the southern.
It is a multicultural and multiracial
country.
Though its history dates back only to the
15th century despite the European countries, its cities and towns
have so many peculiar features that it is very interesting for us to have a
"tour” around the USA making short stop at the biggest cities of the USA.
Among the USA’s biggest cities are New
York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, and Philadelphia.
The country’s most important city is its
capital – Washington, D.C.
With its Grand neoclassical building and
its tree-lined avenues, Washington, D.C. strikes the visitor as a lovely and
formal city. Washington wasn’t always this way.
On September 8, 1664, British troops
occupied New Amsterdam without resistance, overthrew the Dutch government, and
called the place New York. Seven years later the Dutch recaptured the city and
called it New Orange, but in 1674 the city was in the hands of the British
again who returned the name New York.
In America there are a lot of large
cities but I want to tell about Chicago.
Chicago is the third-largest city in the
United States and one of the country’s leading
industrial, commercial, financial, and transport center. It extends some 47 km
(29 mi) along the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan, occupying flatland
traversed by two short rivers: the Chicago River and the Calumet River.
The city’s rapid growth was due in large
part to its location, with ready access to markets and raw materials; it has
the world’s busiest airport, Chicago-O’Hare International Airport.
Aided by an excellent distribution
network, Chicago is America’s most important rail and haulage center and is a
significant port handling both domestic and international trade. Great Lakes
freighters and river barges deliver bulk commodities such as iron ore, coal,
chemicals, oil, and grain.
The Chicago metropolitan area has the
highest number of manufacturing employees in the United States. City’s largest
employers is the electrical goods industry, followed by the steel, machinery,
fabricated metals, foods, printing and publishing, chemicals, and transport
equipment industries.
The Chicago Board of Trade and the
Chicago Mercantile Exchange are among the world’s largest commodity markets.
The city is a leading convention center with extensive hotel facilities,
including McCormick.
Chicago has one of the world’s most
beautiful lakefronts.
The world’s first skyscraper was
constructed in Chicago, in 1885, spawning the innovative Chicago School of
architecture. The central part of the city has several of the world’s tallest
buildings, including the Sears Tower, which at 110 storeys
high is the tallest in the United States. Construction of tall office buildings
continues.
Chicago is a major center
of higher education, with numerous colleges and universities. The prestigious
University of Chicago (1890) was the site in 1942 of the world’s first
controlled nuclear chain reaction.
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