PDP #111: Chicago, From On High

Normally, to maximize the space in my online album, I reduce my Public Domain Photography photos in size by 50% before posting them. Today, I'm making an exception, for what I think is an exceptional photo.

This is downtown Chicago, photographed through a port-side window of a Porter Airlines Q400 ascending from Chicago Midway International Airport, a little less than twenty-four hours ago. Someone with more familiarity with Chicago would be able to pick out a host of landmarks; the Sears Tower and John Hancock Center are both visible, the latter cloaked somewhat by clouds, as are Cloud Gate in Millennium Park, a portion of the elevated 'L' tracks above Van Buren Street, and Roosevelt/Wabash 'L' station toward the bottom of the photo, near where some condo towers are going up in a very Toronto-like way. The distance from the top of this photo to the bottom appears to be, roughly, five kilometers, give or take a few hundred meters.

Photos like this just make it even more clear to me that the biggest difference between Toronto and Chicago is that Chicago has been a metropolis for a very, very long time.

I, the copyright holder of this work, hereby release it into the public domain. This applies worldwide. In case this is not legally possible, I grant anyone the right to use this work for any purpose, without any conditions, unless such conditions are required by law.