Windy City (nickname) Windy City (nickname) The city of Chicago has been known by many nicknames, but it is most widely recognized as the "Windy City". The earliest known reference to the "Windy City" was actually to Green Bay in 1856. The first known repeated effort to label Chicago with this nickname is from 1876 and involves Chicago's rivalry with Cincinnati. The term "Windy City" came into common usage when it was popularized by New York City editor, Charles Dana, in "The Sun" during the bidding for the 1893 Columbian Exposition. Chicago won the Exposition, which did not please Dana. The popularity of
Silicon Prairie park, which is located in Champaign. The National Center for Supercomputing Applications is in Urbana. The Chicago Metropolitan Area is home to several companies in the industrial automation, consumer electronics, telecommunications and online services industries. The Illinois Technology and Research Corridor along Interstate 88 and the Golden Corridor along Interstate 90 have particularly high concentrations of such businesses. Among the Chicago area companies and organizations that comprise the Illinois Silicon Prairie are: An area of the Midwestern United States is often referred to as the Silicon Prairie. This region can loosely be defined as the states bordering along Interstate 29