This Map Shows How Milwaukee Has Continued to Expand Its Borders

Milwaukee was originally a nice, regular shape, save the gentle curve of Lake Michigan and a little rectangular bite from its northwest corner.

But to the chagrin of cartographers, the city limits expanded aggressively outward for more than a century, swallowing dozens of tracts large and small before the “Iron Ring” of suburbs around Milwaukee incorporated, reining in most of the city’s large-scale expansion.

The city also grew to the east, filling in acres of Lake Michigan to create the lakefront parks and dense industrial plots around the harbor.