Navy Pier is a 3,300-foot (1,010 m) long
pier on the
Chicago shoreline of
Lake Michigan. It is located in the
Streetervilleneighborhood of the
Near North Side community area. The pier was built in 1916 at a cost of
$4.5 million, equivalent to $96.1 million today. It was a part of the
Plan of Chicago developed by architect and city planner
Daniel Burnham and his associates. As
Municipal Pier #2 (Municipal Pier #1 was never built), Navy Pier was planned and built to serve as a mixed-purpose piece of public infrastructure. Its primary purpose was as a cargo facility for
lake freighters, and
warehouses were built up and down the Pier. However, the Pier was also designed to provide docking space for passenger excursion steamers, and in the pre-
air conditioning era parts of the Pier, especially its outermost tip, were designed to serve as cool places for public gathering and entertainment. The Pier even had its own
streetcar. Today, Navy Pier is Chicago's number one tourist attraction.
(Wikipedia)