Factory town

300 block, North Ogden Street

Friday afternoon

Awesome sights like this are what make Chicago cool. Big ol' industrial silo type thing, just a mile or so northwest of the Willis (nee Sears) Tower. 

There's a steel plant right on the edge of one of the toniest neighborhoods, where passersby gawk through the big open doors at sparking molten metal being poured into big vats. A candy factory right outside the Loop that makes all of downtown smell like chocolate when the wind is blowing right. An active concrete plant a mile off the Magnificent Mile, where river barges pull up and deliver crushed stone and sand and stuff.

It's nothing at all like where I came from (DC), where there's no real heavy industry. Of course, every year I live here probably a takes a week or two off my life expectancy. A small price to pay for such ambiance.