GARY, a city of Lake county, Ind., U.S.A., at the southern end of Lake Michigan, 25m. S.E. of Chicago. It is on Federal highways 12 and 20 and is served by the Baltimore and Ohio, the Michigan Central, the New York Central, the Pennsylvania, and the Wabash railways, two industrial belt railroads, and six inter urban trolley lines and by lake steamers. The population in 1920 was 55,378, of whom 5,299 were negroes and 16,46o were foreign born white; and was ioo,426 in 193o.
Gary is a creation of the United States Steel Corporation, which in 1905 bought a tract of 8,000ac. here. The site con sisted of barren sand dunes and swampy meadows, crossed by the Grand Calumet and the Little Calumet rivers. By 1928 the city had an assessed valuation of $152,382,970; 191m. of improved streets, 15m. of boulevards, 135m. of water mains, 9om. of street car track and a fleet of motor buses, 4m. of bathing beach, and 515ac. of public parks, golf courses and playgrounds. A city planning commission was appointed in 1919, and the city plan (adopted in 1924) includes a comprehensive zoning system, and an ambitious scheme for the "Gary Gateway," providing for a civic centre.
The industries (chiefly subsidiaries of the United States Steel Corporation) represent an investment of $15o,000,000, and in clude the largest steel works, tin-plate mills, rail mills and cement works in the country. The heat, light and water company, also a subsidiary of the Steel Corporation, buys the electric current and the gas it distributes from the Illinois Steel company.
The schools of Gary provide academic instruction 48 weeks in the year; physical training 52 weeks, on six and a half days each week. William A. Wirt, the first superintendent of schools, tak ing advantage of his unique opportunity for experimentation, worked out a system known among educators as the "Gary Plan" or "Platoon Plan," and it has been adopted, with more or less modification, in many cities.
Gary was chartered in 1906, and was named after Elbert H. Gary (1846-1927), chairman of the board of directors of the Steel Corporation. At the first Federal census (191o) after the founding of the city, the population was 16,802, and in the follow ing decade it increased more than threefold. The original area has grown to 39.96 sq.m. At the beginning of the nation-wide strike of steel workers in 1919 (Sept. 22) the walk-out in Gary was almost complete. The city was occupied on Oct. 7 by Federal troops, who were not withdrawn until the strike was called off, on Jan. 7, 1920.
For an account of the public school system, see F. P. Bachman and R. Bowman, The Gary Public Schools (1918).