Milwaukee the Midwest. Because of its easy access to Lake Michigan and other waterways, Milwaukee's Menomonee Valley has historically been home to manufacturing, stockyards, rendering plants, shipping, and other heavy industry. Reshaping of the valley began with the railroads built by city co-founder Byron Kilbourn to bring product from Wisconsin's farm interior to the port. By 1862 Milwaukee was the largest shipper of wheat on the planet, and related industry developed. Grain elevators were built and, due to Milwaukee's dominant German immigrant population, breweries sprang up around the processing of barley and hops. A number of tanneries were constructed, of which
Milwaukee prominent monuments are: While Milwaukee had been previously marketed as "A Genuine American City" as well as "A Great Place on a Great Lake", it has earned the nickname, the "City of Festivals." The city hosts an annual lakefront music festival called Summerfest. Listed in the "1999 Guinness Book of World Records" as the largest music festival in the world, in 2017 Summerfest attracted 831,769. The adjacent city of West Allis has been the site of the Wisconsin State Fair for over a century. Milwaukee hosts a variety of primarily ethnically themed festivals throughout the summer. Held generally on the