If you look at Chicago on a map you will see right away why Jr. feels right at home there. Chicago is a major center of trade. Chicago is not an ocean port but it is located on a major body of water - Lake Michigan. People in Chicago have used their lake port for domestic and international trade for many years.

Lake Michigan is one of the United States' five Great Lakes (can you name them?) that lie between the United States and Canada. The five lakes are connected by natural and artificial waterways. In some cases, rivers connect one lake with another. In other cases, people have built canals, dams, or locks to help barges and ships travel from one lake to another past waterfalls and other barriers.

The Great Lakes aren't just connected with each other, though. They are also connected to the Atlantic Ocean through the St. Lawrence River, and to the Mississippi River and Gulf of Mexico through the Illinois Waterway from Lake Michigan. The Great Lakes - which account for about 20% of the world's fresh surface water - have been a major part of trade and commerce in the northern United States.

Large ocean-going container ships cannot travel through the Great Lakes or their waterways. However, medium-sized ships and narrow barges can navigate these waters easily. They carry grain from the Great Plains to ports all over the world, and metal, chemicals, petroleum, and other raw materials used in the factories and processing plants of the Midwestern United States.

Since Chicago is located on the shores of Lake Michigan, it's been a big part of all this waterborne trading activity. In addition, Chicago has become a major rail and trucking center. Cargo that is bound to or from the Great Lakes often gets to Chicago or leaves Chicago on a train or a truck. That way, cities all over the United States - even those that are far from any kind of lake, river, or sea port - can participate in trade by sending their goods to and from Chicago on trucks and trains.

In the early part of the 20th century, the poet Carl Sandburg described the city of Chicago this way:

Hog Butcher for the World,
Tool maker, Stacker of Wheat,
Player with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler;
Stormy, husky, brawling,
City of the Big Shoulders

If you live in Chicago, is that the way you would describe your city? If not, what words or pictures would you use?

If you live somewhere else, what kind of poem would you write to your home town?

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