East Chicago

City and port in Lake County, northwest Indiana, on Lake Michigan; population (1992) 34,600. East Chicago forms part of the metropolitan area of Gary–Hammond–East Chicago and is on the southern fringe of the Chicago conurbation. East Chicago receives such raw materials as iron ore, coal, limestone, and oil at its port, and processes these and other materials into a variety of products at its refineries, foundries, chemical plants, steel mills, and smelters. It has railway work shops, and manufactures industrial equipment and clothing.

Inland the city is enclosed by the territory of Gary and Hammond but on the lakeside reclamation has created the port of Indiana Harbor, one of the major ports of the Great Lakes and linked to East Chicago by the Indiana Harbor Ship Canal.