These pockmarked lakes are common in the northernmost reaches of the Midwest, though they are especially noticeable in this photo of Labrador in Canada.

Frozen lakes near Minneapolis, Minnesota and a warning sign from Buffalo, New York. (below)

Lake Michigan Satellite Image

The Great Lakes have been called 'America's Mediterranean' - They comprise the world's largest inland fresh water source, with enough water to cover the entire US over 6 feet deep

54 billion gallons a day are taken out for cities and industrial use

The image to the right is of Late Spring
- Dark Green = Evergreen Forests
- Spruce, Fir & Pine
- Light Green/Yellow = Deciduous Forests
- Maple, Beech & Birch
- Grayish = Corn & Soybean Fields
- fields mostly Bare in this image
- Light Blue = High Altitude Clouds

- The Mississippi River is the very dark line on the left and forms the western border of Wisconsin and Illinois
- The Wisconsin River - flows diagonally into the Mississippi River
- Green Bay is the large finger-like extension at the northwest part of Lake Michigan

Chicago appears as a large gray spot on the southwest shoreline of Lake Michigan. Milwaukee is a much smaller gray spot further up the coast.

Looking southeast over Lake Michigan from Chicago (above)

The SEARS TOWER with Illinois in the background

World's Tallest Buildings - Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat
- Highest Occupied Floor - Sears Tower - 436 m
- Highest Rooftop - Sears Tower - 442 m
- Tallest Skyscraper including a structural or architectural top - Petronas Towers, Kuala Lumpur - 452 m (includes Petronas' 74 m tall unoccupied spires)
- Tallest Skyscraper including an attached antennae was the NYC World Trade Center, 527 m

- A new skyscraper being constructed in Shanghai will be 466 m tall and will replace the Petronas as the world's tallest building. When completed, six of the world's 10 tallest buildings will be in Asia <http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200109/30/eng20010930_81437.html>

CHICAGO - The view south from the John Hancock Tower (above; Sears tower is in the distance)

Above: Looking north up Lake Michigan (from John Hancock Tower)

John Hancock Tower on left;
The Water Tower in middle

A river flows through downtown
Chicago into Lake Michigan

St. Vincent De Paul Society Church; and Irish Pub

Chicago's Transportation: Rails to the East, South and West; a Subway Station; and Paul Harvey Drive

Expressing Opinions in Chicago (above) and St. Louis (right)

Farm Land in the Agricultural Midwest

The Pattern on the Land Over Ohio - Central Pivot Irrigation created round fields; traditional rectangular fields

Both the photo (above) and the Effingham, Illinois topographic map show the North-South and East-West lines of the US Public Land Survey (many demarcated by roads), interrupted by a diagonal railroad and a small river.

The Ohio River passing by Cincinnati, Ohio.

The railroad meets the Ohio River barges in the Mill Creek Area of Cincinnati (below).

Brick wall map of elevation changes in the course of the Miami Canal between Lake Erie (left end) and the Ohio River (right end).

The statue below is of Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus (c 458 BC)
The legendary Roman is seen here after he had defeated the Aequians and rescued the trapped Roman army.
With one hand he returns the Fascens, symbol of power as appointed dictator of Rome.
His other hand holds the plow, as he resumes the life of a citizen and farmer.

The city was named in 1790 by governor Arthur St. Clair, member of the Society of the Cincinnati,
an order of revolutionary war officers whose first president was George Washington.

Cincinnati was also known as Porkopolis because it was the center of hog slaughtering in the Midwest.
Above is a replica of the Ohio River with towers topped by flying pigs at the location of Cincinnati on the river.

Paddle wheel and smaller tour boats on the Ohio River, with Kentucky on the far shore. Cincinnati was a major terminus for Blacks fleeing slavery via the "Underground Railroad" to south of the Ohio River.

Cincinnati Reds professional baseball game on the Ohio River

The pole marks Ohio River high water marks. The stick is the highest that the river has crested historically.

Cooling off on a hot summer day in Cincinnati

Kings Island Amusement Park outside Cincinnati, one of the most visited in the US (below).

Scene of an early Midwest settler, viewed on a King's Island train ride.

The Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri symbolizes the city as the gateway to the West.

A capsule elevator takes visitors to the top of the 630 foot arch, which is the tallest memorial in US. A 'Museum of Westward Expansion' is located in the base of the arch.