Despite being named after the Algonquian word for skunk, Chicago is one of America’s most thriving and spectacular cities. Spanning 22 miles along the southwest shore of Lake Michigan, the city itself holds nearly 2.9 million people and sits in the center of a metropolitan area containing more than 8 million.

Looking at the image, some of Chicago’s famous sites can be made out. The long black line coming into the center of the city from the southeast is the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. In the center of the city, just right of where the canal banks north to become the Chicago River, sits a small pier on Lake Michigan, perpendicular to the city, known as Meigs Field. Just to the left of the pier is Soldier Field. Scanning north of Miegs Field, another pier juts out onto the lake. This is Navy Pier. Though it cannot be made out in the image, the Water Tower District and the John Hancock Building sit between Navy Pier and the Chicago River. South of this area is downtown Chicago and the Sears Tower.

This simulated-color scene was acquired by the Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper plus (ETM+) on September 14, 2001.
Image courtesy Ron Beck, USGS Land Processes Data Center, Satellite Systems Branch

SOURCE: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=11277

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Picture prepared for Wikipedia by Adrian Pingstone in November 2003.