The Erie Canal opened in 1825, establishing a water route to the East Coast and stimulating a property and business boom in the area now known as Chicago.

Chicago's reputation as 'hog butcher to the world' was solidified by the Union Stock Yard, employing 30,000 workers, which in one year, 1924, slaughtered more than 18.6 million head of cattle, calves, sheep and hogs.

In 1929 the St Valentine's Day Massacre saw seven gangsters executed in public by fearless rivals. This instigated a serious crackdown on gang behaviour, and peaked with the arrest of Al 'Scarface' Capone.