| Windy City, Origin Of Name (chicago) |
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While it's hard to determine the origin, meaning when it first became a common moniker, it most likely became a recognized term between the 1870's and 1890's. MEANING Weather Geographic conditions in the area (i.e. proximity to Lake Michigan , local prevailing winds, etc.) make Chicago a naturally windy area. Another contributing factor is how the city was rebuilt after the Great Chicago Fire . With a clean slate planners modeled new Streets on the Grid System . In high density areas, such as the loop, man-made wind tunnels are created on high windy days as there are even "columns and rows" for wind to travel down and pick up speed. Politics Others say that the name comes from Chicago's political history. Specifically referencing the "spectator sport" style of politics practiced in the last century. It is meant to be a jab towards the Chicago Democratic Machine which for the most part has been led by the Daley family for the past 50 years. Machine politics may have fallen out of style every where else in the country but it is for the most part alive and well in Chicago. To sum it up our when Chicago politicians speak they are "blowing a lot of wind". World's Fair It's a popular myth that the first person to use the term Windy City was the New York Sun editor Charles Dana. In 1893 Chicago won the bid to host the World's Fair, also known as the Columbian Exposition . This was a big deal because the French had just put the Americans to shame at the previous World's Fair with the building of the Eiffel Tower . The next world's fair was seen as a chance by many Americans to show the world that it too was a great country. Another factor that made this bid competitive was the list cities competeing for the right to host the fair. At the top New York , St. Louis and Washington D.C. all fought hard for the right and many New Yorkers thought they had it in the bag. In the end it came down New York and Chicago. Chicago finally won in a run off vote and many prominent New Yorkers were extremely irritated that a "frontier town" could best them. Of course over time national press coverage was given to the fair from start to finish. Dana railed against the city's raucous boosterism: suggesting that no one pay attention to the "nonsensical claims of that windy city. Its people could not hold a world's fair even if they won it." ORIGIN When you look at the three theories each makes sense as a meaning for the name but the earliest known published use is harder to determine. It is widely believed that it was first used by Charles Dana in 1893. This however is a myth, as other newspaper references show use of the term in earlier years. The following newspaper article was published by the Cleveland Gazette in 1885: SOURCES
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