Chicago River History

History of the Chicago River by the city of Chicago

More than 200 years ago, early pioneers described the Chicago River as a wet, muddy pond with the consistency of cement. This sluggish stream trickled imperceptibly along two channels that became the river's north and south branches, converging at the mouth of Lake Michigan. There were only two ways to travel along the stream: by canoe or by walking along trails made by the Potawatomi. Some of these trails are now major highways that now link people and goods throughout the region and the world.




The river has been a highway of sorts. The Chicago River and its tributaries have been dredged, straightened and deepened to improve its use for agriculture, navigation and shipping. Channeling the upstream reaches of the river provided agricultural drainage. Channeling the lower stream allowed commercial navigation. Today, the two reaches converge amongst the steel and concrete skyscrapers in downtown Chicago. This "River System," constructed by humans, runs backwards from its natural course. It is more than 150 miles long and downtown it is 21 feet deep. The system includes the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, Cal-Sag Channel, Calumet and Little Calumet Rivers and the North Shore Channel.



Commerce



When people first began settling and trading near the river, they moved themselves and their supplies across the river with canoes. Later they built bridges such as the log drawbridge and began channeling, or straightening the river. Both made commerce easier and promoted new settlements. Burgeoning trade and new industries out paced any ideas concerning the need to process garbage and human waste separate from the Chicago River. Riverside industries such as slaughterhouses, sawmills, tanneries and soap factories dumped debris and pollutants into the river. The waste upset the ecological balance of the river. Settlement and industrialization took its toll.



Bubbly Creek



The pollution in Bubbly Creek, on the river's south fork in the town of Bridgeport, was a standout. The Union Stock Yards, slaughterhouses and processing plants, flanked the river from 35th and 47th streets. The "Yards" dumped unwanted hog parts into the river. On the river bottom, decomposing carcasses released methane gas and grease, which swelled with greasy foul-smelling bubbles. The Union Stock Yards lasted 105 years, finally closing in 1971. This legendary stretch of the river serves as a cornerstone for modern progress.



Reversing the Chicago River


Eventually the pollution from dwellings and industry along the river began to take a toll on human health. In 1885 a severe rainstorm forced sewage-filled river water into Lake Michigan, contaminating the city's drinking water. This natural disaster led to a cholera and typhoid outbreak that killed over 90,000 people within a few days. The polluted water also choked river vegetation and killed small animals inhabiting the waterway.



Repeated outbreaks of epidemic diseases compelled the City to find a way to stop the flow of polluted water into Lake Michigan. The city created the Metropolitan Sanitary District of Greater Chicago in 1889 to safeguard the city's drinking water and to determine an acceptable way to dispose of wastes. In 1900, the problem was solved by a massive engineering effort. Engineers constructed the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal to reverse the river's natural flow from eastward to westward, thereby steering the city's waste, human and industrial, away from Lake Michigan. Now the river flows toward the Des Plaines River, the Mississippi River and, finally, the Gulf of Mexico. Locks regulate the elevation of the river and prevent Lake Michigan from draining freely downstream. The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) deemed the river reversal project one of the seven engineering wonders of the United States.