Madrid has a tight uniformity about it. Buildings are low, streets are narrow and there is a general hue of red throughout the buildings. The narrowness of these streets versus their American counterparts cannot be underscored enough; standing on a rooftop could very well give no picture of the road structures around the building. This works as a great advantage to jewel thieves who's livelihoods depend on roof jumping. If one were try to cross rooftops like this in Chicago, however, they would plummet to a sparkly, sparkly death. This is because large urban centers in the United States have very tall buildings which do not expand to the brims of property lines. The American city, therefore, is more spacious between buildings with wider roads.
If one were to approach Chicago from Route 90 they would see the city well before they reached it; giant towers looming on the horizon. This is not so with many European cities. Their low profile makes them indistinguishable from a distance. When looking across rooftops I also noticed church steeples bursting through at various points, making themselves stand out against the residential and commercial buildings which surround them.
Judging purely on looks of the cities, I would guess that Chicago would have a higher population, but it turns out that Madrid is actually ahead by about 500,000. Chicago: 2.8 million residents within 228 sq. miles. Madrid: 3.3 million within 234 sq. miles. European cities may be much shorter, but they support populations of equal size and in this case, more.
It's also worth noting that Chicago was founded in the 1770s while the settlement of Madrid dates back to before history. This is probably a major reason for the pronounced differences. Chicago was developed much later than Madrid and therefore was subject to different construction techniques and different social and cultural dynamics.
Here are a few more cities from around the world:
Sydney, Australia
4.5 million residents
Founded 1788
Shanghai
14 million residents
First settled in the 5th century
Interesting and telling figures on density. Many times we look at skyscraper cities and read them as more densely packed, but that appears to not be the case. So what is the strategy for fitting all those people in?
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