Photo of the Day 23 March 2008

Cloud-Shrouded Skyline, Chicago, 1978
Photograph by Steve Raymer A blanket of clouds shrouds the Chicago skyline in the metropolis that poet Carl Sandburg dubbed "the city of the big shoulders."

The "stormy, husky, brawling" Chicago of Sandburg doubled and tripled in population after 1850. It saw the first skyscraper rise in 1885 and the tallest in 1974. Once known for its meatpacking industry, the city today runs on finance, shipping, and iron and steelworks.