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1 : The world’s largest commercial office building is Merchandise Mart located at 222 Merchandise Mart Plaza
2 : The world’s largest illuminated fountain is Buckingham Fountain located in Grant Park
3 : The world’s largest public library is Harold Washington Library Center located at 400 S. State St.
4 : The Lincoln Park Zoo, one of only three free major zoos in the country, is the country’s oldest public zoo with an estimated annual attendance of three million people.
5 : The world’s tallest masonry building is Monadnock Block located at 53 W. Jackson Blvd.
6 : The world’s largest free-admission food festival is the Taste of Chicago located in Grant Park
7 : The world’s largest convention facility is McCormick Place located at 2301 S. Lake Shore Drive
8 : The world’s highest steeple above ground is at the United Methodist Church, 77 W. Washington St.
9 : The world’s busiest futures exchange is the Chicago Board of Trade located at 141 W. Jackson Blvd.
10 : The Chicago Park District has the nation’s largest municipal harbor system
11 : The world’s largest stand-alone theater is the Uptown Theatre located at 4810 N. Broadway
12 : The world’s largest parochial school system is the Archdiocese of Chicago
13 : The world’s largest water filtration plant is the Jardine Water Purification Plant located at 600 E. Grand Ave.
14 : Chicago produced the first Roller skates in 1884
15 : Chicago produced the first Elevated railway in 1892
16 : Chicago produced the first Cracker Jacks in 1893
17 : Chicago produced the first Zipper in 1896
18 : Chicago produced the first Steel-framed skyscraper in 1885
19 : Chicago produced the first Window envelope in 1902
20 : Chicago produced the first Hostess Twinkie in 1930
21 : Chicago produced the first Pinball game in 1930
22 : Chicago produced the first Blood bank in 1937
23 : Chicago produced the first Rotary Club in 1905
24 : Chicago produced the first All-Star baseball game in 1933
25 : Chicago produced the first Malted milkshake in 1922
26 : Chicago produced the first Automated bread factory in 1910
27 : Chicago produced the first Spray paint in the late 1940s
28 : Chicago produced the first Comprehensive municipal plan in 1909
29 : Chicago produced the first Mail order business in 1872
30 : Chicago produced the first American Nobel Prize-winner in 1907
31 : Chicago produced the first Controlled atomic reaction in 1942
32 : Chicago produced the first Planetarium in W. Hemisphere in 1930
33 : Chicago produced the first Municipal Cultural Center in 1897
34 : Chicago produced the first Zoot suit in the 1920s
35 : Chicago produced the first Car Race in 1895
36 : Chicago produced the first Oscar Mayer “Wienermobile” in 1936
37 : Chicago produced the first Cafeteria in 1895
38 : Chicago produced the first U.S. meat slicer in 1909
39 : Chicago produced the first Daytime TV soap opera in 1949
40 : Chicago has 30,000,000 annual visitors
41 : Chicago has 2,890,000 residents
42 : Chicago has 213,000 catch basins
43 : Chicago has 148,000 manholes
44 : Chicago has 47,330 fire hydrants
45 : Chicago has 28,751 hotel rooms
46 : Chicago has 25,610 hospital beds
47 : Chicago has 13,550 police officers
48 : Chicago has 1,180 crossing guards
49 : Chicago has 7,000+ restaurants
50 : Chicago has 6,400 bike racks
51 : Chicago has 4,600+ landmark properties
52 : Chicago has 4,300 miles of sewer mains
53 : Chicago has 4,290 miles of water mains
54 : Chicago has 4,260 firefighters
55 : Chicago has 3,780 miles of streets
56 : Chicago has 560 parks
57 : Chicago covers 228 square miles
58 : Chicago has 200+ annual parades
59 : Chicago has 200 live theaters
60 : Chicago has 198 neighborhoods
61 : Chicago has 110 fire stations
62 : Chicago has 105 hospitals
63 : Chicago has 77 community areas
64 : Chicago has 64 miles of expressway
65 : Chicago has 63 miles of water supply tunnels
66 : Chicago has 60+ miles of riverfront
67 : Chicago has 53 inches of annual snowfall
68 : Chicago has 50 wards
69 : Chicago has 49 museums
70 : Chicago has 46 movable bridges
71 : Chicago has 110+ miles of bike lanes
72 : Chicago has 31 miles of lakefront
73 : Chicago has 30 inches of annual precipitation
74 : Chicago has 29 police horses
75 : Chicago has 18 miles of lakefront trail
76 : Chicago has 15 miles of bathing beaches
77 : Chicago has 4 buildings taller than 1,000 feet
78 : Chicago has 3 fire helicopters
79 : Chicago has 2 rivers that flow backward
80 : The world's largest Tiffany dome is located at the Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington St.
81 : Chicago is the global headquarters to 29 Fortune 500 companies, 12 Fortune Global 500 companies, 13 Financial Times Global 500 companies, and 250 other corporate headquarters.
82 : Chicago proudly boasts over 132 language groups and over 130 foreign-language media outlets
83 : 1,500 foreign-owned firms have found their American home in and around Chicago
84 : Chicago is at the center of one of the largest trading areas in the world - the east/west nexus joining the markets of Europe and Asia... and the north/south nexus of NAFTA.
85 : Chicago is a non-stop global gateway to 68 international and 148 domestic business centers
86 : Chicago has 80 miles of public shoreline and 94 vacation beaches
87 : Chicago is home to six Major League sports franchises, including the 2005 World Champion White Sox
88 : Chicago is home to over 2,896,000 residents
89 : Chicago is home to 48 cultural institutions, historical sites and museums
90 : Chicago is home to more than 200 theaters
91 : Chicago is home to nearly 200 art galleries
92 : Chicago is home to more than 7,300 restaurants
93 : Chicago is home to 77 neighborhoods
94 : Chicago is home to 26 miles of Lakefront
95 : Chicago is home to 15 miles of bathing beaches
96 : Chicago is home to 19 miles of lakefront bicycle paths
97 : Chicago is home to 552 parks
98 : McCormick Place, Chicago’s convention center, offers the largest amount of exhibition space in North America (2.2 million square feet)
99 : The first Ferris Wheel made its debut in Chicago in 1893 at the World's Columbian Exposition. Today, Navy Pier is home to a 15-story tall Ferris Wheel, modeled after that first Ferris Wheel.
100 : The Harlem Globetrotters got their start in Chicago as the "Savoy Big 5." They played their first game in 1926 at the Savoy Ballroom. In 1927, they moved to New York and became the Harlem Globetrotters.
101 : After the Great Chicago Fire in 1871, the debris was dumped into Lake Michigan. The area of downtown Chicago east of Michigan Avenue was actually built on the resulting landfill.
102 : Chicago’s downtown area is known as “The Loop.” The nickname refers to the boundary created by the elevated (‘El’) train tracks that circle this area.
103 : Chicagoans created the game of 16-inch softball, which is played without using gloves.
104 : In 1900, Chicago successfully undertook a massive and highly innovative engineering project – to reverse the flow of the Chicago River so that it emptied into the Mississippi River rather than Lake Michigan.
105 : Each year, the Chicago River is dyed green to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.
106 : The Art Institute of Chicago holds one of the largest and most extensive collections of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings outside of the Musee d’Orsay in Paris.
107 : The Adler Planetarium was the first planetarium in the Western Hemisphere
108 : Chicago was one of the first municipalities to include public art funding in its requirements for the renovation or construction of municipal buildings, with the passage of the Percentage-for-Arts ordinance in 1978.
109 : The Chicago Cultural Center is the first free municipal cultural center in the U.S. and home to the world’s largest stained glass Tiffany dome
110 : The Harold Washington Library Center, with approximately 6.5 million books available, is the world’s largest municipal building.
112 : Chicago is home to more five diamond restaurants (awarded by AAA) than any other city in the nation
113 : 600,000 trees have been planted over the past 20 years which equates to removing the air pollution from 40,000 cars annually.
114 : Chicago is the most bicycle-friendly city in the nation. It has 50 miles of bike paths, 1100 miles of designated bike lanes on city streets and some 11,000 bike racks – more than any other city in the United States.
115 : Chicago has installed more than 90 miles of landscaped medians, which clean the air, beautify the City and absorb storm water so the sewer system isn't overburdened.
116 : Chicago has more than 600 public schools that are active in recycling programs and more than 100 campus parks have been constructed.
117 : Chicago also has more than one megawatt of solar power generating capacity, which is more than virtually every other city in the country.
118 : Chicago has over 1900 miles of alleyways – the most of any city in the world.
119 : The green roofs gardens on City buildings collect rain water, lower temperatures in the summer and reduce the amount of energy needed to cool buildings.
220 : A green roof was installed on the roof of Chicago’s City Hall in 2000 to manage storm water and reduce urban heat island effect.
221 : Chicago’s Center for Green Technology on City’s West Side is the first municipal building in the world to be awarded a platinum rating by the U.S. Green Building Council.
222 : The Mayor enclosed a small lakefront airport called Meigs Field in 2003 and turned it into a nature preserve, with lagoons, wetlands and prairies.
