how did the location of chicago influence its development
Geography of Chicago One special feature of the Chicago area was the now-vanished Mud Lake in the Des Plaines River watershed. During heavy periods of rain or when the Des Plaines overflowed its banks due to downstream ice dams in the early spring, the river would flow through Mud Lake to the South Branch of the Chicago River, forming a favorite portage for early traders and creating the path of the future I&M and Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canals. When the city we know today was initially founded in the 1830s, the land was swampy and most of the early building began on low dunes around the Chicago River's mouth. Indeed, Chicago's low lying geography, which ultimately became crucial to its boom town development (as the site of the Chicago Portage and canal), could not initially attract substantial early settlement because the tall grass prairie around its lake and river systems was underlain by hard packed glacial clay, making much of the area forbidding wetlands.[2] Thus, the paradox of Chicago's development as a city in the 19th century became taking advantage of this geography, but also overcoming its limitations.
O'Hare International Airport Chicago O'Hare International Airport (IATA: ORD, ICAO: KORD, FAA LID: ORD), also known as O'Hare Airport, Chicago O'Hare, or simply O'Hare (/oʊˈhɛər/), is an international airport located on the far Northwest Side of Chicago, Illinois, 14 miles (23 km) northwest of the Loop business district, operated by the City of Chicago's Department of Aviation[6] and covering 7,627 acres (3,087 ha).[4] O'Hare has direct flights to 217 destinations in North America, South America, Asia, Africa and Europe.[7][8]