Thriving and progressive, Milwaukee has retained its Gemütlichkeit--though today's lively conviviality is as likely to be expressed at a soccer game or at a symphony concert as at the beer garden. This is not to say that raising beer steins has noticeably declined as a popular local form of exercise. While Milwaukee is still the beer capital of the nation, its leading single industry is not brewing but the manufacture of X-ray apparatus and tubes.

Long a French trading post and an early campsite between Chicago and Green Bay, the city was founded by Solomon Juneau, who settled on the east side of the Milwaukee River. English settlement began in significant numbers in 1833 and was followed by an influx of Germans, Scandinavians, Dutch, Bohemians, Irish, Austrians, and large numbers of Poles. By 1846, Milwaukee was big and prosperous enough to be incorporated as a city. In its recent history, perhaps the most colorful period was from 1916 to 1940 when Daniel Webster Hoan, its Socialist mayor, held the reins of government.

The city's Teutonic personality has dimmed, becoming only a part of the local color of a city long famous for good government, a low crime rate, and high standards of civic performance.

With a history going back to the days when the Native Americans called this area Millioki, "gathering place by the waters," Milwaukee has undergone tremendous development since World War II. The skyline changed with new building, an expressway system was constructed, the St. Lawrence Seaway opened new markets, new cultural activities were introduced, and 44 square miles were tacked onto the city's girth.

Today, a city of 96.5 square miles on the west shore of Lake Michigan, where the Milwaukee, Menomonee, and Kinnickinnic rivers meet, Milwaukee is the metropolitan center of five counties. "The machine shop of America" ranks among the nation's top industrial cities and is a leader in the output of diesel and gasoline engines, outboard motors, motorcycles, tractors, wheelbarrows, padlocks, and, of course, beer.

As a result of the St. Lawrence Seaway, Milwaukee has become a major seaport on America's new fourth seacoast. Docks and piers handle traffic of ten lines of oceangoing ships.

The city provides abundant tourist attractions including professional and college basketball, hockey, and football, major league baseball, top-rated polo, soccer, and auto racing. There is also golf, tennis, swimming, sailing, fishing, hiking, skiing, tobogganing, and skating. For the less athletic, Milwaukee has art exhibits, museums, music programs, ballet, and theater including the Marcus Center for Performing Arts. Its many beautiful churches include St. Josaphat's Basilica, St. John Cathedral, and the Gesu Church.