Everything about The Chicago River totally explained
The
Chicago River is 156 miles (251 km) long, and flows through downtown
Chicago. Though not especially long, the river is notable for the 19th century
civil engineering feats that directed its flow south, away from
Lake Michigan, into which it previously emptied, and towards the
Mississippi River basin. This was done for reasons of sanitation. The river is also noted for the local custom of dyeing it green on
St. Patrick's Day.
Geography
Originally, the river flowed into Lake Michigan. Its course jogged southward from the present river to avoid a
baymouth bar, entering the lake at about the level of present day
Madison Street. Today, the Main Stem of the Chicago River flows due west from Lake Michigan, past the
Wrigley Building and the
Merchandise Mart to Kinzie Street, where it meets the North Branch of the river. The North Branch is formed by the West Fork, the East Fork (also known as the
Skokie River) and the Middle Fork, which join into the North Branch at
Morton Grove, Illinois. From downtown, the river flows south along the South Branch, and into the
Illinois and Michigan Canal and
Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. From there the water flows into the
Des Plaines River and eventually reaches the
Gulf of Mexico.
History
The first non-
Native American to settle near the Chicago River was
Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable, who built his farm on the northern bank at the mouth of the river in the 1780s In 1808
Fort Dearborn was constructed on the opposite bank on the site of the present-day
Michigan Avenue Bridge. In the 1830s and 1840s considerable effort was made to cut a channel through the sandbar to improve shipping. In 1928, the South Branch of the Chicago River between Polk and 18th Street was straightened and moved ¼ miles (400 m) west to make room for a railroad terminal.
Reversing the flow
Originally, the river flowed into Lake Michigan. As Chicago grew this allowed sewage and other pollution into the clean-water source for the city. This contributed to several
public health issues including some problems with
typhoid. Starting in the 1850s much of the flow was diverted across the
Chicago Portage into the Illinois and Michigan Canal. In 1900, the
Sanitary District of Chicago, then headed by
Rudolph Hering, completely reversed the flow of the river using a series of
canal locks and caused the river to flow into the newly completed Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. Before this time the Chicago River was known by many local residents of Chicago as "the stinking river" because of the massive amounts of
sewage and
pollution which poured into the river from Chicago's booming industrial economy. Up through the 1980s, the river was quite dirty and often filled with
garbage; however, during the 1990s, it underwent extensive cleaning as part of an effort at beautification by Chicago Mayor
Richard M. Daley.
Recently, researchers at the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign created a three-dimensional, hydrodynamic simulation of the Chicago River, which suggested that density currents are the cause of an observed bi-directional wintertime flow in the river. At the surface, the river flows east to west, away from Lake Michigan, as expected. But deep below, near the riverbed, water travels west to east, toward the lake.
All outflows from the
Great Lakes Basin are regulated by the joint U.S.-Canadian
Great Lakes Commission and the outflow through the Chicago River is set under a
U.S. Supreme Court decision (1967, modified 1980 and 1997). The city of Chicago is allowed to remove 3200 cubic feet per second (91 m³/s) of water from the Great Lakes system; about half of this, 1 billion US gallons a day (44 m³/s), is sent down the Chicago River, while the rest is used for drinking water. In late 2005 the
Alliance for the Great Lakes proposed separating the Great Lakes and Mississippi River basins.
Chicago Flood
On April 13, 1992 the
Chicago Flood occurred when a pile driven into the riverbed caused stress fractures in the wall of a long-abandoned tunnel of the
Chicago Tunnel Company near Kinzie Street. Most of the 60-mile (97 km) network of underground freight railway, which encompasses much of downtown, was eventually flooded along with the lower levels of buildings it once serviced and attached underground shops and pedestrian ways.
Ecology
The Chicago River has been highly affected by the industrial and residential areas around with attendant changes to the quality of the water and riverbanks. Several species of warmwater fish are known to inhabit the river including
largemouth and
smallmouth bass,
rock bass,
crappie,
bluegill,
catfish and
carp. The river also has a large population of
crayfish. The South Fork of the Main (South) Branch, which was the primary sewer for the
Union Stock Yards and the
meatpacking industry, was once so polluted that it became known as
Bubbly Creek. Illinois has issued advisories regarding eating fish from the river due to
PCB and
mercury contamination, including a "do not eat" advisory for carp more than 12 inches long. There are concerns that
silver carp and
bighead carp, now
invasive species in the Mississippi and
Illinois Rivers, may reach the
Great Lakes through the Chicago River.
St. Patrick's Day
Every year on
St. Patrick's Day, the river is dyed green.
Bill King, the administrator of Chicago's St. Patrick's Day committee, stated that "the idea of dyeing the Chicago River green originally came about by accident when a group of plumbers were using
fluorescein dye to trace illegal substances that were polluting the river".
The
United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) outlawed the use of
fluorescein for this purpose, since it was proven to be harmful to the river. The first
movable bridge was constructed across the main stem at Dearborn Street in 1834. Today, the Chicago River has 38 movable bridges spanning it, down from a peak of 52 bridges. These bridges are of several different types, including
trunnion bascule,
scherzer rolling lift,
swing bridges and
vertical lift bridges.
The following
bascule bridges cross the river (and its south branch) into the
Chicago Loop:
Famous buildings
Many of Chicago's landmark buildings line the banks of the river. A partial list follows:
Main branch
Navy Pier
Wrigley Building
Tribune Tower
Trump International Hotel and Tower (Chicago) (open 2008)
Marina City
Merchandise Mart
Chicago Spire (2011)
Waterview Tower (originally 2008, now 2009)
South branch
Civic Opera House
Chicago Mercantile Exchange
Union StationFurther Information
Get more info on 'Chicago River'.
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