Chicago's Buckingham Memorial Fountain
A Look at the Beautiful Fountain of Chicago's Grant Park
About the Fountain
The name of the fountain comes from the Buckingham family. Kate Buckingham donated $300,000 for maintenance on top of paying for the fountain itself which she dedicated to the memory of her brother Clarence Buckingham. The enormous fountain represents Lake Michigan which can be seen just a few hundred yards from the fountain itself. The multiple seahorse sculptures within the fountain represent the states that touch the great lake. These statues were designed by another Frenchman by the name of Marcel F. Loyau.
What Makes it Special?
Buckingham Fountain is in Chicago which does not have particularly warm weather year round. As a result, the fountain is only active from mid April to mid October. The fountain runs from 8:00 AM to 11:00 PM. At night it has a special light and music shows that go along with the water show. These shows go on every day every twenty minutes and include a huge jet of water out of the top of the fountain that goes 150 feet up into the air.
The fountain contains over 1,500,000 gallons of water and pumps more than 14,000 gallons per minute through its system. It is an amazingly beautiful and miraculous piece of human engineering that has to be seen to be fully appreciated. The fountain has been renovated a number of times in order to keep all of its many pipes in perfect working order. The fountain is particularly popular for photographs of Chicago.
Conclusion
This fountain was dedicated on August 26, 1927 and it continues to be a great section of Chicago today. It is a huge tourist attraction and with good reason too. The amount of water that the fountain shoots out is just astounding. It is an amazing part of the amazing city of Chicago.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckingham_Fountain
Published by J G Hodnette
J G Hodnette is a student of English at Auburn University who enjoys writing. He enjoys watching and reviewing movies so that others will be able to use their precious free time wisely. View profile
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8 Comments
Post a CommentVery nice article.
Beautiful read!
Nice... :o)
Heh, you'd think as a Chicagoan I'd know this stuff, but I didn't. Good article!
looks very nice. I have never been to Chicago, but want to visit
Beautiful picture!
We'll be visiting Chicago soon so thanks for this information.
I have seen this fountain in Chicago and it is beautiful :) cheers!