Illinois Waterway
The Illinois Waterway ( English Illinois Waterway ) is a system of rivers and canals between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River . It is 541 km long. Together with the Mississippi River, it connects the Great Lakes with the Gulf of Mexico .
The oldest connection was the 155 km long Illinois and Michigan Canal, construction of which began in 1836, but could not be completed until 1848 due to financial problems on the part of the State of Illinois . The workers were mostly of Irish origin and some had already gained experience building the Erie Canal . The completion of the canal gave Chicago a central role in the transportation of the United States as it now had a direct link to the Gulf of Mexico. Until 1854, the canal was also used by many passenger ships, but this changed with the completion of a railway line running parallel to the canal. Freight transport reached its peak in 1882.
From 1900, however, this connection was increasingly replaced by the larger Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal . Since 1933 - the year the Illinois and Michigan canals were shut down - this has been the only one to link Lake Michigan over the Chicago River to the Illinois River , which in turn flows into the Mississippi. In 1910, the North Shore Canal was added, which connects to Lake Michigan just a few kilometers north of Chicago - in the suburb of Wilmette - and also only a few kilometers from the former confluence of the Chicago River into Lake Michigan, still within the urban area from Chicago to flow into the Chicago River. In 1922, the waterway system was finally expanded to include the Calumet-Sag Canal, which connects the Sanitary and Ship Canal with the Little Calumet River , southwest of Chicago .
Barriers and dams
| Lock / dam name | Location | Miles from the Mississippi |
Altitude | Coordinates |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thomas J. O'Brien L&D | Chicago | 326 | 577 feet (176 m) | 41 ° 39'7.45 "N 87 ° 34'1.24" W. |
| Lockport L&D | Lockport | 291 | 577 feet (176 m) | 41 ° 34'8.61 "N 88 ° 4'39.29" W. |
| Brandon Road L&D | Joliet | 286 | 539 feet (164 m) | 41 ° 30'12.12 "N 88 ° 6'11.04" W. |
| Dresden Island L&D | Morris | 271 | 505 feet (154 m) | 41 ° 23'52.66 "N 88 ° 16'56.42" W. |
| Marseilles L&D | Marseilles | 245 | 483 feet (147 m) | 41 ° 19'39.77 "N 88 ° 45'4.5" W. |
| Starved Rock L&D | North Utica | 231 | 458 feet (140 m) | 41 ° 19'27.93 "N 88 ° 59'10.82" W. |
| Peoria L&D | Peoria | 157 | 440 feet (134 m) | 40 ° 37'54.84 "N 89 ° 37'29.52" W. |
| La Grange L&D | Beardstown | 80 | 430 feet (131 m) | 39 ° 56'21.21 "N 90 ° 32'0.69" W. |
literature
- Jerry Hay: Illinois Waterway Guidebook. 1st Edition, 2009, ISBN 978-1-60743-856-4 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ United States Army Corps of Engineers - Chapter 6. The Illinois Waterway ( Memento of July 9, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), PDF, English.
- ↑ US Army Corp of Engineers Illinois Waterway Fact Sheet - Illinois Waterway Locks & Dams Rock Island District 2015 ( Memento of March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), PDF, English.
Coordinates: 41 ° 39 ′ 7 ″ N , 87 ° 34 ′ 1 ″ W.