Stunning skyscrapers on Chicago's Magnificent Mile

This photo was taken on North Michigan Avenue, just south of the Chicago River, looking northwards to the bottom end of "Magnificent Mile".

This is where the best of the town's skyscrapers are to be found. My favourite, the Carbide and Carbon Building is behind me (and rather difficult to photograph).

So I offer instead three other 1920s creations:
- the charming Wrigley Building, with its elegant clock tower;
- to its right is the neo-Gothic Tribune Tower, topped by the stars and stripes
- just behind this is a partial profile of the Hotel Inter-Continental, originally the Medinah Athletic Club, with its yellow oriental (or onion-shaped) dome.

Protruding upwards behind the dome is a slim turret: this was a stairway intended to provide access to and exit from airships, which were to tether above the building. It was never used, and the 1937 Hindenburg disaster put paid to commercial airship flights.

A mile further north, in the background and looking similar to the Willis Tower with its two tall white antennae, is the top of the John Hancock Center. An irritating talking lift inside the building carries you up to a viewing platform with unbeatable views of Lake Michigan and the town center.


"Magnificent Mile", a prestigious shopping centre, runs from Wrigley Building to a few blocks beyond the John Hancock Center.