Milwaukee is the largest city in the US state of Wisconsin. The town’s history goes back to the first settler in the area, who was the French-Canadian Alexis Laframboise. He established a trading post here, and over the following decades, Byron Kilbourn, Solomon Juneau, and George H. Walker established the sites of Kilbourntown, Juneautown, and Walker’s Point. Juneautown was established east of the Milwaukee River in 1818, while Kilbourntown dates from 1834, and Byron Kilbourn fought Juneautown by establishing an asymmetrical street network that later required angled bridges.

It culminated with the so-called Bridge War in 1845 before the three cities were merged into Milwaukee the following year. In the next decades, many German settlers arrived, so that around 1880 the city consisted of a clear majority of Germans, and they left their mark on Milwaukee, which as an example of German influence became the home of the breweries Miller and Pabst. The city’s growth continued through the 1900s, with the population at one point reaching 700,000.

Today, you can enjoy an interesting metropolis on a stroll through the streets of Milwaukee. You can start at the City Hall, which opened in Flemish Renaissance style as Milwaukee’s tallest building in 1895. The 108-meter-high City Hall tower was even the city’s tallest until 1973, when the First Wisconsin Center opened. Across from City Hall is the beautiful Pabst Theater from 1895. You can also see other fine examples of early 20th century high-rises in Milwaukee’s downtown, e.g. the art deco buildings Wisconsin Tower from 1930 and Wisconsin Gas Building from 1930, which have a flame on top. The flame indicates upcoming weather using colors.

In the same area, you can go to Cathedral Square Park, which is a square where there was a courthouse until the 1930s. On the eastern side of the square, you can now see the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist. The church is the city’s Catholic cathedral, and it was built in 1847. The church interior is open and bright in design, and here are, among other things, some fine stained-glass windows.

It is easy to enjoy Milwaukee’s location on Lake Michigan and the Milwaukee and Menomonee rivers as well. The Milwaukee River runs through downtown, and you can follow the Riverwalk all the way from the Historic Third Ward warehouse district through downtown to parks north of the city. Along the Riverwalk there are varied urban environments, art, cafes, etc. It is also possible to walk along the shores of Lake Michigan, which looks like an ocean from Milwaukee.

The open lawns of Lakeshore State Park are an option with a nice view of the city skyline, and to the north of this is the city marina. On the waterfront outside downtown, you can visit Discovery World, an interesting museum of technology and natural science, and the Milwaukee Art Museum. The museum is one of the largest art museums in the USA, and it is open in beautiful architectural settings in the form of Santiago Calatravo’s Quadracci Pavilion with the Brise Soleil superstructure.

South of downtown, the Third Ward developed as a warehouse district with warehouses, factories and housing along the banks of the Milwaukee River. After recessions, the neighborhood has been revitalized, and you can see quite a few buildings from the decades around 1900 in the streets. These are, for example, the Baumbach Building from 1899 and the American Candy Co. from 1902. It is also in the Historic Third Ward you can enjoy the stalls of the Milwaukee Public Market, a food market that opened in 2005.

Close by is the Harley-Davidson Museum, where the story of the iconic motorcycles that have been produced in Milwaukee since 1903 is told. Of course, the museum also features many motorcycles on exhibition, and since 1915 the company has kept a copy of each production type for museum purposes. If you go west of downtown, you can see the interesting Milwaukee Public Museum with historical exhibits and environments from early Milwaukee.