Introduction
When you hear about the Chicago River, it’s usually about the green dye that they put in the river every year for St. Patrick’s day. However, this river was subject to one of the greatest civil engineering projects in modern history; it’s flow was entirely reversed so that lake Michigan flows into the river.
Why was it done?
During the industrial revolution, Chicago was a hub for the meatpacking industry. This resulted in a lot of pollution going into the river. This pollution was bad enough that you could walk from one side of the river to the other without a bridge or a ferry because the carcass concentration was so dense. The river caught fire during the great Chicago fire of 1871 because of all the dead bodies lying there flowing into the drinking water. There were other solutions that they attempted, including making the first municipal sewer system by raising the entire city using jack rigs, but these were unsuccessful.
How was it created?
The river was forced backwards because it sits just 20 miles from the border of the Mississippi river watershed. The Army Corps of Engineers realized that if they could dig a canal over the border, the water would flow away from the lake and make drinking water safer by diverting the flow of water towards the Mississippi river, making it the problem of the people who lived downstream.
Did it face any hurdles?
The first problem that faced the project was time: they had to build the 20 mile canal before cities that were downstream sued the city and indefinitely stopped the project. The next problem they faced is that they didn’t complete the project in time and the city of St. Louis sued them, bringing the case up to the supreme court. They halted the construction of the canal, with only one dam to destroy until it would be operational. The Chicago chief of police and several others then decided to take matters into their own hands and blow up the remaining dam with dynamite, and the project was completed. Several other canals were later added, causing water from lake Michigan to drain at an alarming rate, forcing the city to build locks in the river to keep water levels at an acceptable level. The river’s flow was corrected once in 2023 due to flooding.
Related Stories:
https://www.hows.tech/2024/08/why-does-chicago-river-flow-backwards.html
https://weather.com/science/environment/news/2023-07-03-chicago-river-flow-reversed
Take action:
https://www.cntraveler.com/story/the-chicago-river-actually-flows-backwards
