A Tale of Two Waterfronts.

For whatever reason, I've had the city of Budapest on my mind a lot lately. So when asked to think about an old European city, it was a natural choice.

Budapest is the capital of Hungary and is a very old city, originally a Celtic settlement and, until the mid 1800's, was the two separate cities of Buda and Pest with the Danube River running between them. The construction of  a bridge finally linking the two cities ultimately lead to their unification. The river clearly defines the city's character.

The center of the city is the Hungarian Parliament building, with all of the surrounding buildings dwarfed by it. In fact, every photo I've found of Budapest and its skyline focuses on the Parliament building. In contrast to the Hungarian waterfront, I present the city of Chicago on Lake Michigan:

 

The skyline here is dominated by tall buildings. The shore along the waterfront is left to a large highway, whereas Budapest has a smaller roadway along either side of the river. Both cities have several one-way streets in the blocks near the waterfront. The city also has a more orderly look, owing to the predominant grid in Chicago. A peak at Budapest's roadways reveals that the Pest half of Budapest has some grid-like influences, possibly because of flooding in the mid-1800's, but it doesn't compare to the overwhelming conformity to a common grid in Chicago. Conversely, the buildings themselves in Budapest have a very uniform look, keeping a similar size and style while the buildings in Chicago are very individualized and compete for the viewer's attention. 

 There are a few generalizations that I draw from comparing these two cities. The first is that European cities are much older and in tune with their heritage than the much newer American cities are. While they seem to emphasis a common front, the American cities seem quick to take advantage of their surroundings and stand out. Skyscrapers, in this regard, are a demand to attention, which contrasts to the European skyline where it's hard to tell one building from another. Another effect of the timespans involved is that the European city it construct more haphazardly than the orderly grid pattern of American cities.

Also, people in Europe like flying over their cities in balloons. Maybe.