Chicago River

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Chicago River
View of the river from Chicago's Michigan Bridge in west direction by day ...

View of the river from Chicago's Michigan Bridge in west direction by day ...

Data
Water code US :  406050
location Illinois (USA)
River system Mississippi River
Drain over Illinois River  → Mississippi River  → Gulf of Mexico
origin Lake Michigan
41 ° 53 ′ 18 ″  N , 87 ° 36 ′ 49 ″  W.
Source height 176  m
muzzle Illinois Waterway Coordinates: 41 ° 53 '12 "  N , 87 ° 38' 14"  W 41 ° 53 '12 "  N , 87 ° 38' 14"  W.
Mouth height 175  m
Height difference 1 m

Big cities Chicago
... and at night

... and at night

The Chicago River is 251 km long and flows through Chicago , Illinois . The reversal of the direction of flow in the 19th century and the green color of the river on St. Patrick's Day are remarkable .

history

The Chicago River originally flowed into Lake Michigan , causing sewage and other contaminants (including from booming industry ) to pollute the clean water that supplied the city. This worsened the overall health and culminated in a cholera - epidemic . From 1871 the outflow was directed into the Illinois and Michigan Canal , built in 1848 , which opened a waterway connection to Chicago over the Illinois River and the Mississippi River with the Gulf of Mexico . This canal joined a bend in the Chicago River coming from the north, a few hundred meters before its confluence with Lake Michigan. In 1900 the "Chicago Sanitary & Ship Canal" was built as the centerpiece of the later Illinois Waterway at the suggestion of the environmental engineer Rudolph Hering , in order to improve the water quality by changing the direction of flow of the river. This could be achieved through a complex lock system at the previous confluence with Lake Michigan, so that from now on, cleaner drinking water could be obtained from the lake. The new canal largely replaced only the Illinois and Michigan Canal , but ran after several kilometers in a separate, new, and wider river bed parallel to the Illinois and Michigan Canal . Since 1933 - the year the Illinois and Michigan canals were closed - the larger Chicago Sanitary & Ship Canal has been the only one to link Lake Michigan to the Illinois River via the Chicago River.

The industrial port is now in the southern Calumet River , which means that the Chicago River hardly plays a role as a freight route.

Until the 1980s, many residents referred to the Chicago River as "the smelly river" because it was very dirty and filled with garbage . In the 1990s, at the instigation of Mayor Richard M. Daley , the river was finally thoroughly cleaned to beautify the city.

In 1992, an underground network of old Chicago Tunnel Company supply tunnels was "drilled through" with a pile and largely flooded.

Since 1962, the Chicago Plumbing Association has had the river colored green with a dye every St. Patrick's Day . Uranine was used until 2003 . Because of the environmental pollution, a "secret vegetable dye" is used today.

bridges

The Chicago River is spanned by a total of 38 movable bridges of various types. These included the South Halsted Street Lift Bridge , which went into operation in 1894 and was the world's first lift bridge .

Documentation

  • The Chicago River - A river in reverse. 44-minute television documentary by Katja Esson (rbb, Germany 2016)

Web links

Commons : Chicago River  - Collection of Images, Videos, and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Other cities dye-ing to know what turns Chicago river green. Reported in The Columbia Chronicle March 20, 2003.
  2. ↑ Green in 30 seconds. Daily Mail March 17, 2014; Retrieved November 26, 2014