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 15^th 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.