Tracing the Rust Belt: A Day Trip to Milwaukee 🚂🏙️

From Chicago, it takes just an hour and a half by train to reach Milwaukee. The railway, built in 1847, was once a vital link between the Mississippi River Basin and the Great Lakes. My first impression of Milwaukee was one of post-prosperity decline. As I stepped out of the train station and called an Uber, an extremely old car pulled up. The driver was a quiet elderly white man — something that surprised me, as I rarely encountered older white drivers in Los Angeles. Through the window, towering buildings flashed by one after another. A cold wind whistled past, evoking a sense of steel and concrete dominance. The worn-out skyscrapers made it clear: I had arrived in a Rust Belt city.😊😁 Rust Belt cities, located around the Great Lakes, were once the heart of American industrial development in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Convenient water and land transportation, abundant mineral resources, advanced heavy industry, and a booming population fueled nearly a century of prosperity for these lakeside industrial hubs — like Detroit, the Motor City, and Pittsburgh, the Steel City. Milwaukee, nestled along Lake Michigan, was known for machinery manufacturing and is the birthplace of the iconic Harley-Davidson motorcycle. Today, next to the Milwaukee train station stands the Harley-Davidson Museum, which details the rise and fall of the motorcycle industry, the glorious history of Harley, and displays classic motorcycle models.😁 Walking through Milwaukee’s historic streets, weaving among skyscrapers, you’ll find urban scenery rivaling Chicago’s. Similarly impressive skylines, similarly dense clusters of high-rises, similarly clean streets — except it feels like a ghost town. On a Saturday afternoon, downtown Milwaukee was almost empty. Occasionally, I passed road construction sites, but they too seemed long abandoned, devoid of people.😊 Standing beside Milwaukee’s City Hall, I looked up at the majestic skyline and almost imagined the smell of rust lingering in the air. Yet along the roads, flowers were in full bloom, and the grass was lush and green. Perhaps it’s true: “The spring breeze knows nothing of rise and fall; every year, the grass reclaims the ancient city.” 🌸🏛️ That said, for travel, cities that were once glorious and are now in decline make fascinating destinations. As the old saying goes: “If you want to understand the past and present, just look at Luoyang.”❤️😍 #TravelBeyondChecklists #RustBeltExploration #UnseenAmerica