格兰特公园

位于市中心东南，密西根湖旁，是芝加哥主要公园之一。

它是芝加哥大火后清理出的瓦砾沿湖堆积而成的。园中的白金汉喷泉（Buckingham Fountain）是世界第一大照明喷泉，比法国凡尔赛宫大喷泉足足大一倍。它的基座用粉红色的大理石筑成，水池直径85米。四周几百道水花射向中央，中央的一支水柱喷高四五十米。到了晚上，各色彩灯从泉底下照射上来，灯光水色，如高空烟花，海底珊瑚，色彩瑰丽，蔚为壮观。

Park Description
Proudly referred to as Chicago's "front yard," Grant Park is among the city's loveliest and most prominent parks. The site of three world-class museums -- the Art Institute, the Field Museum of Natural History, and the Shedd Aquarium -- the park includes the museum campus, a 1995 transformation of paved areas into beautiful greenspace. Grant Park's centerpiece is the Clarence Buckingham Memorial Fountain, built in 1927 to provide a monumental focal point while protecting the park's breathtaking lakefront views.


History
Grant Park's beginnings date to 1835, when foresighted citizens, fearing commercial lakefront development, lobbied to protect the open space. As a result, the park's original area east of Michigan Avenue was designated "public ground forever to remain vacant of buildings." Officially named Lake Park in 1847, the site soon suffered from lakefront erosion. The Illinois Central Railroad agreed to build a breakwater to protect the area in exchange for permission for an offshore train trestle. After the Great Fire of 1871, the area between the shore and trestle became a dump site for piles of charred rubble, the first of many landfill additions.

In 1901, the city transferred the park to the South Park Commission, which named it for Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885), 18th President of the United States. Renowned architect Daniel H. Burnham envisioned Grant Park as a formal landscape with museums and civic buildings. However, construction was stalled by lawsuits launched by mail-order magnate Aaron Montgomery Ward, who sought to protect the park's open character. Finally, in 1911, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled in Ward's favor. New landfill at the park's southern border allowed construction of the Field Museum to begin, and the park evolved slowly. In 1934, the South Park Commission was consolidated into the Chicago Park District, which completed improvements using federal relief funds.

At the turn of the 21st century, the north end of Grant Park is undergoing a multi-million-dollar facelift, as old railbeds are transformed into Millennium Park, a major landscape and festival site.