Speaker 1: Welcome and thank you for visiting the Informatorium 56 Podcast Studio.

This location is dedicated to general education and information and features this podcast.

I am Greg Bell and my partner Julia Korony is here with me.

How are you doing today, Julia?

Speaker 2: I’m doing great.

I’m really excited to learn more about the Chicago River.

Speaker 1: Awesome, because we have a lot of information about it.

We’re going to start out with a quick rundown just to get everything into shape so we know where we’re going.

Last time we covered French exploration of the Chicago area through the creation of an all-water route from the Atlantic and Great Lakes through the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico, which was created by the completion of the I&M Canal.

When we left off, the population of Chicago was skyrocketing as the city became the central hub of transportation in the growing United States.

Today, we’re going to start with how the growth of the city and the fact that it was draining its sewage into Lake Michigan began poisoning the city’s water supply.

Next, plans are put in place to either clean up the sewage, get cleaner water, or both.

Then we will take a detour and discuss the continental divide that runs through Chicago, which this actually makes it appear feasible to reverse the Chicago River to run the sewage and drain everything south to the Mississippi River out of the Chicago area.

Eventually, we will end up with one of the most remarkable man-built contraptions in the United States, the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, which successfully and so far permanently reverses the Chicago River.

Then with that, we’ll wrap it up with the summation and the big takeaway.

So let’s dive into the details and make a good story of it.

So let’s start with the next step in the story, which is the waste.

Chicago is big and dirty and all of its waste is poisoning its own water supply, which is Lake Michigan, because everything is running into the lake and just draining out there and causing all the attendant problems that come with that.

Turns out, if you build your city around something called Mud Lake, there’s going to be some challenges, namely the mud and the muck, and that’s what they were dealing with.

To set the scene, let’s start in the 1850s.

There’s actually a joke on a website from Chicagology, which was about this situation, and it goes like this.

It says, “A gentleman who passing by a street discovers a man buried up to his shoulders in mud.

The gentleman asks the man, ‘Can I help you?’ ‘No, thank you,’ the man replied, ‘I have a good horse under me.’”

Speaker 2: Oh, that’s hilarious. 1850s humor right there.

Speaker 1: It really is.

It’s the pinnacle of 1850s humor.

But what it does do is it illustrates like this is what was on people’s minds at the time, this is what they were making jokes about, the mud.

Speaker 2: Right, they’re making light of a muddy situation.

Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly.

I mean, they were just dealing with insane amounts of mud.

So let’s look at the sanitation situation and give some stats and perspectives to flesh that out a little bit.

As the population grew, animal waste, sewage, and chemicals were pouring into the river and flowing into Lake Michigan, which was again the source of their drinking water.

So in 1854, cholera actually kills 60 residents every summer day in Chicago.

That’s 6% of the city’s population, and obviously it’s just getting spread around by the polluted water.

Another example, April 29th, 1849, a ship called the John Drew from New Orleans actually brings cholera to the city.

Hours later, its captain and several passengers died.

The disease spreads really quickly and 29,000 people get sick and 678 of them die.

So by 1854, the city has gone through outbreaks of cholera, typhoid, and dysentery, which you know at the time…

Speaker 2: That’s a lot to go through for a growing city.

Speaker 1: Yeah, but it’s common.

I mean, this is what’s going on in the country at the time when you have population growing and people getting together in tight areas.

Speaker 2: Yeah, I didn’t even think of the animal waste.

You know, everyone still, they have their food there, like chickens and cows and all that is there in the streets.

Speaker 1: It’s really the growing pains of a growing country, to be honest, because you know this is when we’re talking about we’re getting to the Industrial Revolution, this is when everybody’s moving together and when these things start to come up.

Obviously, they weren’t as big of a deal when everybody was living on a farm and distant from one another.

And it’s going on throughout the country, you know, but right now we’re focusing on Chicago and obviously it doesn’t sound great.

So, but now the files indicate in 1885, there’s actually a huge storm that comes through.

There’s a little bit of a dispute as to how bad the effects of it were, but we know for sure that there was a storm.

Basically, five inches of rain were dropped.

This was on August 2nd, 1885, and it’s more than the sewage system can handle and the sewage floods out deep into Lake Michigan.

And there were ramifications of this.

It’s really the ramifications that are apparently up for debate.

There’s some sources that say like 10% of the population of the city died, which would be 90,000 people at the time.

Other people are saying that that’s made up after the fact and that if you go back and look at the actual records from the time, this storm didn’t really cause that much of an effect.

The peak death rate of typhoid was 1,700 deaths and that was in 1891, so this storm didn’t really have that huge of an effect.

But either way, the city is huge and it is in fact dumping a ton of waste into its own streets and therefore its water supply and people are getting sick and something has to be done about it.

Encyclopedia of Chicago puts it like this.

They say, “By 1890, having burst from the ashes of 1871 to achieve metropolitan rank, it was earning the ambivalent reputation that all great cities had at the time.

Awesome in its bulk and wealth, yet condemned for its flesh pots, diseases, and poverty.

It was frighteningly large and it kept growing.” So obviously, you know, Chicago’s just spiraling out of control with its population.

Everybody’s trying to work in the cities and get jobs and they’re all moving here and everything’s just culminating together in this one place.

But regardless of the storm or anything else, something has to be done.

So let’s look at a timeline of the attempts to go about fixing this situation.

So that brings us to step six, which is how do we get cleaner water for the city of Chicago? So the first Public Health Act of the city of Chicago actually goes back even before 1855, but unfortunately at this time they did not know that cholera was transmitted via water, so it’s not really a significant attempt to address the problem.

I mean, they tried, but it doesn’t really work very well.

But it does illustrate the issues starting around 1832.

Speaker 2: Right, so at this time, troops are coming back from the Black Hawk War.

This is a war with the Native Americans in the area and it’s seen as the end of the Native American resistance to the US expansion in the Northwest Territory.

These soldiers brought with them cholera, which is caused by a bacteria and it can be contracted by eating and drinking contaminated water and food.

Some symptoms are diarrhea, vomiting, and acute cramps, and these cause severe dehydration, which in turn can lead to death within 24 hours in very extreme cases.

To that, city authorities believed this disease was the result of filth, so they make all the male residents between ages of 21 and 60 go out into the streets and clean, you know, what they deemed filth at the time.

And if they don’t, they’re fining them 75 cents to five dollars if they don’t complete this task.

Speaker 1: Right, and it’s not a good situation, but you know they’re obviously making attempts to try to figure something out here and clean it up.

But the next step, which I’m going to call like the first valid attempt at actually having a chance to help, is in the Board of Sewage Commissioners formed on February 14th, 1855, to start a public sewer system.

So they’re actually going to try to build a sewer system and actually clean up the city.

And they end up giving Ellis S.

Chesbrough the chance to do this.

They actually give him three chances, turns out, to fix the water problem because, spoiler alert, the first two don’t actually completely solve the problem.

But he does end up getting three chances to it, and that’s when Chesbrough comes into the picture here.

Speaker 2: Right, so Chesbrough is born around 1813 in Baltimore, and he was a self-trained engineer.

He started at a very young age, he was a railroad surveyor, and then he later becomes an assistant engineer and a resident engineer for a few railroad projects around the Northeast.

In 1846, he was the chief engineer of the Western Division of Boston Water Works, and apparently he was so amazing at this job that in 1851 he becomes Boston City’s city engineer.

And during this time, the Boston water distribution system is designed.

So because of these accomplishments, Chesbrough gets hired by Chicago and becomes the city’s engineer of the Sewage Commission, and he keeps moving up into the different positions.

In 1863, he is Chicago City’s engineer, not sewage, not water, he’s just the main engineer.

Speaker 1: Yeah, and it sounds like, I mean again, they have the means, they’re doing the best they can here.

It sounds like they went and got the right person.

It’s, you know, nothing against Chesbrough, but you know he sounds like he’s the guy for the job, right? He’s got all this experience, he’s already worked for another major city.

Speaker 2: They need someone to deal with their water problems, they hire the guy that did the Boston water system, which Boston is, you know, one of the oldest cities in the country.

Speaker 1: So it makes sense.

So what does Chesbrough come up with? His plan is to raise the city of Chicago.

That was the plan.

Speaker 2: That’s a big plan.

Speaker 1: It’s a big plan.

I believe I mentioned in the last podcast about the book I read about the British author and he said, you know, only in America, he’s like, “Oh, your city’s in mud and everybody’s getting sick? That’s not a problem, we’ll just lift it up and go back to business.” It seems crazy, but that’s what they do.

And it turns out they actually went about their business while they were lifting it up, which we’ll find out here in a little bit, which is even more amazing.

But that’s the plan.

The first plan is raise the buildings and put in a sewer system.

You know, the area’s a mess from poor drainage, so and people have suspected for a while that was causing the disease.

So what we’re going to do is to clean out the mud and the muck, we clean up, we lift up the city, we throw in a drainage system, fill in the dirt, and go about our day.

And the reason they had to do this is because the area of Chicago, we already talked about the mud and everything, but part of the cause of this is the ground there is what they call loam soil, which is a mixture of sand, silt, and clay.

So basically the water just doesn’t drain.

So and then on top of it, it’s actually, it would have been too costly to actually dig up drainage because it’s hard to dig.

So then you also end up with the problem that, you know, you can’t dig the drain, the soil doesn’t drain itself, so basically that’s how you end up with the mud and how you end up with, you know, the city being such a mess.

But I mean if you think about it, if you’re going to even just put gutters on a house, you have to have like a half-inch of pitch for every 10 feet.

So you got to realize when you’re dealing with a city, we’re not talking about just like a little bit of pitch.

Like if you’re trying to drain this from the city out into the lake, you’re talking about a long way here.

So that’s why they get into the territory of having to lift up the city.

So and this project starts in 1858.

And the project as it is, basically like I said, what they’re going to do is they’re going to put the sewers above the streets, okay? They’re actually going to put them in so the incline would run them into the Chicago River, then fill in the streets with dirt, and then raise as much as eight feet.

Now some sources said they raised buildings 14 feet.

I think that’s actually a mistake in logic because the goal was actually to get the buildings 14 feet above lake level so that you would have enough room to put the drains in…

Speaker 2: Right, right.

Speaker 1: …and maintain enough pitch to get over there.

I don’t think anything actually got lifted 14 feet.

Speaker 2: That’s just the overall height that they needed to achieve.

Speaker 1: Right, and they had already done some things before this and I think when you started putting it all together, it kind of got a little misinterpreted there is my best guess in reading it.

But believe it or not, actually part of this was that the businesses in the area wanted to have cellars put in while they were doing this.

Speaker 2: Ah, yes.

Speaker 1: Like a basement.

Speaker 2: Yeah, everyone needs storage.

Speaker 1: Right, because you know they have Main Street and you’re trying to run a business and they want to have these cellars in here.

But they want the cellars dirt-free too.

So you’re basically adding, you know what I mean, in these projects…

Speaker 2: Right, you can’t dig and then…

Speaker 1: They’re probably not huge, but they’re talking about like eight feet more than would have been necessary just to do the buildings, which is kind of amazing.

But anyway, like I said, 14 feet is the goal.

And the Chicago Tribune from 1857 specifically says 4 to 14 feet above the lake, so I think that’s where the numbers are.

I think that’s what we’re going on here for.

So but a word if you will on this street raising.

I mean, I find this entire thing fascinating, so we’re going to take a little detour and dig into it a little bit because it is really interesting.

One of the first sources we’re going to use here is Chicagology.

It’s a really cool website just kind of like on the history of Chicago.

And it actually cites the Chicago Press and Tribune and later the Chicago Tribune.

They are both the same newspaper, they changed their name in 1860, so this is like the Chicago Tribune that you think of all the way back then.

And you know we’ll use their articles to kind of set the scene of how this raising and lift started out because it actually starts out, the guy writing the articles is really annoyed and then it ends up being everybody’s just awestruck by what’s going on.

So he explains the plan was to raise the city 4 to 14 feet in these articles above lake level by turning dozens of jacks to raise the buildings.

This is actually how they do it.

They actually lift the city with jacks.

It is fantastic.

But the article actually complains about raising the buildings four feet, and the reason is because of the cellars.

So this guy’s actually complaining, he’s kind of like, I mean I’m not going to call it muckraking, but you know this guy’s trying to get across to his readers, you know maybe kind of stir things up a little bit, but maybe just speak for the readers it kind of seemed like in the tenor that he had in these articles, but just kind of tell everybody what’s going on and let them know what’s happening.

And one of the reasons is the aforementioned cellars, why they’re going to be building this up eight feet in the air extra just because of these cellars, and you know that doesn’t seem really fair to the other people that have to pay for these things.

And then also there’s people who just built their buildings and now they have to raise them.

I mean, no matter when you do this, if the city’s growing this fast, there’s always going to be somebody who just built their building.

Speaker 2: And who’s going to pay for all this?

Speaker 1: And that’s kind of the thing is that’s one of his questions is like, who’s going to pay for this? The owners of the building? And yes, the answer is yes.

Yes, you are.

Speaker 2: Well, I’d be kind of mad.

I just built this building, now I gotta pay to raise it?

Speaker 1: Exactly.

And now the thing is, one of the areas that is really well-publicized is the business districts, obviously.

So the things that are getting moved, and it seems like this all kind of benefits the business because they’re, honestly I think a lot of this was instigated by the businesses.

Like I said, when you look at the fact that they’re doing it for the cellars and then…

Speaker 2: Right, I kind of think part of this is the businesses realized if we don’t clean this up, we’re not going to be making any money, we’re not going to get any return on our investment.

Speaker 1: And also as this is happening, people can come and gawk at this and all these jacks under my building and maybe they’ll buy something from my store or have a beer.

Speaker 2: And last time we talked about how everybody was moving in because of this canal coming through, and if they have these water problems, you know what I mean? Like basically whenever you’re moving into an area with business, you’re expected to make a return on your money.

And I think a lot of this is a little bit self-serving.

And like I said before, there’s a couple areas where you realize there’s kind of rallying people up and talking about how bad the disease is and was it that bad, was it not that bad?

Speaker 1: Right.

Newspapers at the time, they had a, you know, they’re trying to sell newspapers, so a lot of it is just yellow journalism trying to sensationalize everything.

Speaker 2: Yeah, but I’m saying I think a lot of it is the businesses trying to get support for this, trying to get people to get on board with it so they can actually get this city made the way they want it to be made.

Speaker 1: Right.

So but yes, the owners will be the ones paying for this.

But specifically, Lake Street, which is one of the streets I said that you know had a lot of business on it, it’s going to get raised four feet.

And the papers just, they point out, these articles point out that it was supposed to have just been graded a couple years ago and it’s like here we are going again, like where are we going with this? So you could see where the frustration comes from.

Speaker 2: But nothing has changed.

We do that today.

Speaker 1: Yeah, and this is going to happen.

You know what I mean? So it’s, this is going to happen, they’re actually going to lift this up.

Like I said, there’s really cool pictures of this stuff you can find online.

Like the Encyclopedia of Chicago has some, it’s like this sepia-toned picture and it shows these buildings on stilts and everybody’s just going about their day.

Like it’s just like there’s these buildings, they’re put up on stilts, they’re lifting them into the air and everybody’s just walking around doing their thing.

There’s an, it’s called like “View of an entire block of brick and stone” or something on Clark Street.

It’s between Clark and LaSalle, I think is what it says, being raised four feet.

And it actually ends up being a bit of a tourist attraction.

You see that’s where the tone turns, where I think everybody kind of gets behind it because now it’s the cool thing we’re doing in Chicago.

Speaker 2: Right.

And then there’s no entertainment, so yeah, people are going to come look at this.

Speaker 1: Yeah, and they start coming out to check it out, so it becomes like a thing and it ends up being like a fun thing for everybody.

Speaker 2: It’s definitely a thing, yeah.

Speaker 1: And 150 years later, it’s really fun.

So but now here’s the most interesting part.

Like I said, while this is raising, it’s getting all this publicity because they’re actually leaving it open.

So they actually lift the sidewalks with the buildings, so everybody can keep walking through the buildings and using the buildings.

And let’s dig into one of the projects specifically.

It’s called the Lake Street Raising Project.

One of the buildings is a five-story marble building and there’s four-story brick buildings also going down this street.

And east to west, this is 320 feet of buildings.

So this is a huge, amazing project.

Speaker 2: So they’re doing a whole block.

It’s not like an individual building, it’s like a whole block they’re just going to raise at this time.

Speaker 1: Exactly.

And like I said, if you look at those pictures, you can see how it’s like all these buildings, sidewalk and all, just going up in the air, people just walking down the sidewalk, going into the stores.

This is all going on, you know, while this entire project goes on.

So for this, they had three contractors set up because it, you know, it’s such a big project, I guess there was nobody really that could handle the whole thing by themselves.

And they said the cost of it, just with raising the building, not the masonry work, not all the facade and stuff they were going to fix afterward to make it look nice, it cost $16,000, which in today’s money I calculated out with an inflation calculator to be $575,000.

Speaker 2: So and this is just for that one block, not like for the whole city?

Speaker 1: Right, that’s for this project.

Now if you know anything about me, I am not good at math, so feel free to double-check that.

But the best I could figure, that’s how much it was going to be.

So one article actually gives numbers on this Lake Street restructure and it said March 29th, 1860, they were raising it 12 inches per day.

Okay, so the area raised, it’s all businesses, it covers almost an acre.

It weighed 25,000 tons and it was raised 4 feet and 10 inches.

Now how did they do it? So I said they had jacks.

Basically they used screws.

Basically actually they’re screw jacks, but there’s 6,000 of them.

So it’s like 6,000 screws to lift this block up.

So let me explain this screw system.

Just imagine where you’re standing right now, okay? So you look down at the ground in front of you and you just draw a little box.

You say like a little square, you know, like six inches square, and you take four screws, okay, and you screw one screw into each corner of the box down into the ground, okay?

Speaker 2: I’m with you.

Speaker 1: Yes.

Then you take a book and you put it on top of the screw.

Speaker 2: Okay.

Speaker 1: Now if you unscrew the screws underneath the book, like you come around the side and you just unscrew them and go backwards each screw a tiny little bit at a time…

Speaker 2: Right.

Speaker 1: …you’re going to lift the book up into the air.

Speaker 2: Right.

Okay.

Speaker 1: So that’s how they’re going to do this.

Speaker 2: So now they’re going to dig into the ground and place the jacks in the ground.

Speaker 1: Exactly.

So except there’s going to be 6,000 of them and instead of a book, it’s a city block.

Speaker 2: That’s crazy.

That’s just crazy.

Speaker 1: It’s really cool.

Speaker 2: At this point, just go to a different area.

Speaker 1: No, they got to be here.

We already said that this is the place, you know what I mean? There’s a reason this has to be.

Speaker 2: This is the hotspot.

Speaker 1: It was inevitable and now that they’re there, they got to keep it.

You know what I mean? There’s nothing you can do.

But basically, yeah, so these jacks had like notches in them so you could stick a lever in it.

So it’s just slightly more complicated than my screws in the ground theory, but it’s more or less the same thing.

You know, you dig the hole, you prop up the building, you throw the jack under there, and then you put a rod to the jack so you can get a ton of leverage.

And you have a ton of them, you have 6,000 of them, so you can have a bunch of guys doing it at the same time.

And actually I found a picture of this jack.

It’s really cool looking.

Speaker 2: It’s amazing looking.

Speaker 1: Yeah, it’s what you would think.

It’s basically, you know, it’s got this triangular-shaped base and then it’s got a screw going through the middle of it and the top of it’s just the post that you set to whatever you’re jacking up on and it looks like awesome.

Speaker 2: I mean looking at this picture, I was just thinking about what it took to just make one of these, not even like 6,000 of them, just make one of them.

Looks like cast iron and just making that has got to be like a task in and of itself.

And then when you look at the threading on it, it’s like, oh my god, like that’s very impressive for 1860.

Speaker 1: Yeah, they’re pretty big threads.

Yeah, yeah.

And apparently they had done some of this stuff elsewhere, so that’s kind of where the idea came from.

One of the contractors they had actually came from another project.

So but basically so now you’re just imagine this building going up in the air and like I said, the sidewalks are still attached to it, attached to the building.

They just do the whole thing together.

So now you have an entire block suspended mid-air on jacks, okay? And then the laborers are just simultaneously turning them, okay? So that’s how you do it.

They all simultaneously do it at the same time.

Speaker 2: So they have like a guy that’s like going like, “Heave, ho!” and then they’re like, “Okay,” and then they turn?

Speaker 1: More or less, yeah.

Like I didn’t get a specific thing on that, but what they said is you just do it…

Speaker 2: Well, because it has to be in unison, right?

Speaker 1: Yeah, well the thing is, it’s such a little bit too, so I don’t think it has to be like literally timed, but they did it, they did do it well enough that you could stand in the building and not know what was happening.

Speaker 2: Wow.

Speaker 1: So like it’s not, they definitely had a system.

But whatever they were doing, it was a really good system because there are reports that you couldn’t tell what was going on.

So but what it was is each laborer was responsible for 10 or 12 screws.

So they would turn it a quarter turn and then you would go to the next one and turn it a quarter turn.

Like so each guy had his own couple.

Speaker 2: So you don’t have 6,000 people, you don’t have a person per screw.

Got it.

Speaker 1: Right, because you’re going so slow.

Like it’s not, it’s not like somebody’s going to drop their drink while you’re doing this, you know what I mean? Like it’s just you’re going so slow that you’re just going a tiny little bit at a time, so it takes a minute, you know what I mean?

Speaker 2: Interesting.

Yeah.

Speaker 1: But then when they’re done with this, they go back and fill in the holes and that’s going to be the end of the project.

But like I said, the whole time the business is going on.

There’s actually, there was a contractor, the guy I was referring to earlier, his name is George Pullman.

He’s one of the engineers in the firm and apparently his father had invented the screw technique for the Erie Canal, so he had raised several buildings.

And one of the contracts he gets is for the Tremont Hotel.

This is interesting.

His contract specifically stated, this is before he gets there, his contract specifically stated he would not disturb a guest or break a window pane of glass.

Speaker 2: Wow.

Speaker 1: It was said that the guests at the Tremont Hotel did not even notice as the hotel was raised and that was six feet.

Speaker 2: Six feet?

Speaker 1: Yeah, it’s kind of amazing.

So…

Speaker 2: And they’re doing about a foot a day they’re raising it, right?

Speaker 1: Yeah, right.

It was 12 inches per day exactly.

Yeah, checking the notes here.

But yeah, that’s what it, that’s what it was.

So you know it’s not, you know what I mean, you’re barely going to notice it, but the fact that they’re doing it with such perfection that like there’s almost no ramifications to the contents or the residents of these buildings is just amazing.

Speaker 2: But it’s just, it’s boggling my mind that you’re raising it six feet.

So this is taking six days to raise this, but the prep work to get to it must have taken like weeks.

Speaker 1: Yeah, this is a whole much longer project.

This took a long time.

Speaker 2: And then the work afterwards to like build all the masonry and…

Speaker 1: Yeah, it’s an enormous project.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.           

Speaker 1: Now the other thing is this is not the only way people chose to deal with this, okay? So again, the people with the money were going to make, you know, their buildings and everything look great, they’re going to do everything this way.

But obviously there’s people, like I said, the homeowners are the ones who had to pay for this and it’s not just all just businesses and, you know, center city or so this project required other people to deal with the ramifications.

Um, and some of them obviously weren’t going to spend that kind of money.

Uh, but there were other ways to go about it.

Some people just didn’t do anything.

Uh, there’s actually uh pictures where people just put stairs down to their house.

Speaker 2: Oh, interesting.

Speaker 1: Um, yeah, there’s a building in 1888 I found a picture of.

Uh, it’s just bizarrely in a hole on the sidewalk.

Um, like you’re walking down the sidewalk and you see house, house, house, and then you just have a roof.

And then you just keep going and it’s house, house, house.

Okay, so like they just never dealt with it.

They just like put stairs down to their house.

Speaker 2: Wow.

Speaker 1: Other people just turned the first floor into the foundation.

So they just put block walls inside the house and then just started building on top of it again.

Another good solution that seems, you know, to solve your problem.

Speaker 2: Yeah, that seems, that seems, yeah, more efficient than…

Speaker 1: Another one which I wish I could have found something a little bit more on this, but um they used rollers.

So apparently some of the older wooden houses, they were just like, we’re just going to roll this house out of town.

So they just put the house on rollers and they moved it.

Speaker 2: This, this lightweight building over here, we’ll just roll it over.

Speaker 1: Yeah, like we’re not a part of this, we’re gone, you know what I mean? So, I mean, imagine they gave up the real estate value uh that they would have today if they kept that, but at the time they’re like, look, I’m not going through this, I’m just going to move my house and go live over here.

So.

Um, one building…

Speaker 2: Also those people maybe like, I don’t want to deal with all this like all these people coming now into the city with how fast it’s growing, yeah.

Speaker 1: Yeah, at the time for sure, yeah, yeah.

Um, there was another building that was raised by a hydraulics engineer uh named John Lane, he did this in San Francisco.

Um, so apparently they could also use hydraulics to somehow do this uh to lift up the building as well.

Speaker 2: Yeah, I, I was looking at a picture of the courthouse um at the time and, you know, they, they didn’t raise the courthouse.

You would think that would be one of the buildings they would raise, but they didn’t raise the courthouse and because apparently it was huge.

And there’s before and after pictures of that and you can see the lowest window um on the one side is a few feet above the ground and then in the next picture, uh which is about three years later, it is just below the ground.

So as the building is surrounded by a wall as they raise the street around it.

Um, according to accounts, it was never a great looking building and it seems they just kind of added to the courthouse as it was necessary and as the city grew.

So it’s like, oh, we need another building, another area for this, so we’ll just add on to it.

So it was never like architecturally like a nice looking building.

Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it looks kind of cool, but it I’m guessing at the time they were probably like, eh, it’s just a big square blob, you know.

Speaker 2: Right, right.

Um, so in the 1850s, the partly buried, they partly buried the basement to raise the square five feet.

So when the building was built, the basement was above ground.

So they kind of did what other people had done was like, well, now this is the basement.

Um, but the basement still had those windows which you can see in the, in the pictures.

Um, and then they added another floor and a cupola that had a spiral staircase to a balcony which was used as a fire watchman’s walk.

And then unfortunately in 1871, the courthouse burnt down um in the great fire and it was just never rebuilt.

And so all we have is these pictures, we have the one before the raising of the street and then the one after to just kind of look at it and it’s pretty impressive.

Speaker 1: Okay, let’s do a quick sum on where we’re at here, which is basically you installed the sewer pipes high enough to drain to Lake Michigan via the Chicago River, um which is flowing towards the lake.

You raised chunks of the city to get this sewer underneath the buildings.

Then you fill in the hole.

You basically complete an unprecedented engineering marvel.

Okay, the sewage is now flowing away from your city, your streets are all cleaned up.

And it works for a little bit.

Speaker 2: Right.

Chesbrough came through.

Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean again, you know, this guy, he’s the guy, he knows what he’s doing, it’s just I feel like you’re almost fighting unprecedented circumstances here.

I mean it’s like the city just keeps getting bigger and there’s just more and more people and it’s like, well, it worked, of course it worked, you know, but after time and then you’re dealing with more sewage and more people and it doesn’t work so good.

Speaker 2: Yeah, I remember you saying that it’s growing so fast that like by the 1900s it’s up to like two million people or something.

Speaker 1: Right.

And so the problem is the sewage is going to the river and then the river is going out to the lake, uh which is where the water is.

So that’s where you’re getting your drinking water and really all you did now was just move the sewer from your feet to your faucet.

You know what I mean?

Speaker 2: So you basically made cholera worse.

Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean well really it’s it’s kind of the same thing, it’s just more people, but instead of just walking around in it and getting it, it it looks cleaner and it had to be done, you know what I mean? You have to clean the city up, you can’t…

Speaker 2: It smells nicer.

Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly.

You’re not going to progress to where you want to be having the city be a complete mess.

But unfortunately you’re just sending the disease out into the middle of the lake where you’re getting your water back anyway, so it doesn’t really help.

So.

Speaker 2: You didn’t really do anything.

Speaker 1: Right, so you kind of just moved the problem.

Speaker 2: I mean you did a lot, but you didn’t you didn’t solve the disease problem.

Speaker 1: No, and they’re kind of back where they were.

So then the question is, well I told you he got three chances, what do you got next, Chesbrough?

Speaker 2: Plan two.

Numero dos.

Speaker 1: Exactly.

So Chesbrough plan two.

Uh basically he thinks if the problem is the sewage is getting into the lake, what if we just go farther out into the lake to get our water where the water is cleaner?

Speaker 2: This one feels like a step back for Chesbrough.

Speaker 1: Yeah.

Speaker 2: I feel like he doesn’t understand how water works.

Speaker 1: I I honestly when I was reading it, that’s what I thought.

I was like because well I have the hindsight of knowing this totally doesn’t work.

But it turns out they were actually doing this in Europe.

Um, so like he again, again, you know, Chesbrough is like up on what’s going on in the world, he he’s experienced, he knows what he’s doing.

Speaker 2: And you did, sorry to interrupt, but you did say something interesting earlier where you said that the city is just growing so fast.

So maybe at the time he’s thinking like, you know what, looking at our numbers that what we have here, this is a good plan.

Not thinking that in the future is going to be like so big.

Speaker 1: Yeah, I feel like there’s a little bit of like, you know, it worked, so it works.

Yeah, it’s not necessarily like I don’t know that they were doing like fluid calculations, you know, how much flow and people and breaking down all the numbers.

I don’t know that it was quite that.

I think it was just, you know, it worked over in Europe so let’s try it here.

You know what I mean? So I think that was the plan.

Um and it does work.

It does actually work.

It works for a little while.

So uh what’s going on is um there’s a small inlet uh into Lake Michigan, uh that’s actually where their water comes like right off the coast.

So instead of getting it where all of the waste is, he designs and builds a two-mile tunnel 60 feet under Lake Michigan to get the water out from the center of the lake.

This required digging around the clock for three years.

Speaker 2: Oh my gosh.

Speaker 1: This system is supposed to be able to supply five gallons per day for each of the one million people in Chicago.

Five gallons of water obviously.

This system actually included uh the Chicago Water Tower which is a landmark in the area um and the Chicago Avenue pumping station.

So they built this all the way back then.

Uh little sad side note uh on the water tower.

Uh it actually was apparently the only building to survive uh the Chicago fire.

It was equipped with water pumps to stop the fires.

Uh unfortunately the roof caught fire and collapsed uh and damaged the pumps so it was no help during the fire.

Speaker 2: Oh no.

Speaker 1: Um yeah, it’s really kind of oh, it’s awful, yeah.

Speaker 2: It’s like yeah, they provide they looked into it was like, well let’s make this building out of stone and then it still was…

Speaker 1: Yeah, it was a limestone building and that’s why the building survived.

But yeah, it’s it’s kind of a bummer.

It’s kind of like the the courthouse with where they built the cupola for the fire the watchman to watch for the fire and then the building still burnt down.

But again, there is still a bit of a problem with this plan and it’s that you’re still dumping your sewage, it’s going out into the middle of the lake and then you’re bringing the lake back to drink it.

So that’s this is not really going to work.

Uh so we’re not going to spend any more time on this because basically it worked for a little bit um when the population went up and it stopped working.

Speaker 2: And it makes them look bad like, hey, I don’t know how water works, it just disperses into itself.

Speaker 1: But let’s get to Chesbrough plan three which is just the greatest, okay? So Chesbrough plan three is we’re going to reverse the river.

This is the whole premise of these two podcasts and one coming in the future.

But this is really like the thing that is just so awesome about this whole story.

We’re going to reverse the Chicago River.

So that’s what we started out in the beginning explaining how explorers get there, runs out to the lake, all the waste is going out to the lake, trying to find a way to get down into so what what we’re going to do now is we’re just going to reverse it.

Speaker 2: So we’re not going to even bother with canal with the I&M canal anymore, we’re just going to reverse the river.

Speaker 1: Yeah, it turns out the I&M canal actually does kind of get retired uh from this.

So uh even though it was successful and made a lot of money, uh and as we said one of the things that happens is it it was used for transport but then with the railroads it becomes a little bit less important for transport.

So…

Speaker 2: But so wait, so they’re taking their sewage now from the city, they’re we’re like they’re saying we’re not taking it to the lake anymore, we’re just going to send it down the river, down to the Mississippi?

Speaker 1: That’s exactly right.

And you know who loves this plan?

Speaker 2: The people down the river?

Speaker 1: That live on the Mississippi.

Yeah, this is just I mean this is why this is so epic.

I mean this is just…

Speaker 2: It’s like I started to think a little less about Chesbrough here like not thinking of the long-term consequences and other people in the area.

Speaker 1: It’s literally it’s like we are killing ourselves with our disease.

Let’s give it to someone else.

And like that is actually what’s going on.

It is just and that like it’s awful as that is, uh you look back on it and it just it really illustrates the way things worked, you know what I mean? It’s just it’s a different time period.

Speaker 2: And and on top of that, even if this like say if he came up with this plan by himself, everyone around him is like, Ches, that is a great idea.

No one is like, but hey, what about the people in St.

Louis? No one’s like thinking about this?

Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly.

Um but they are, trust me, like they’re suing, there’s all kind of there is outrage.

Oh yeah, there’s lawsuits, it goes to the Supreme Court.

There’s there’s all kinds of stuff that comes up.

This is not some this isn’t you know, well, it turns out they actually do kind of do this in the middle of the night, but you didn’t get the whole project done overnight and just go ta-da and open the gate and St.

Louis is like what? You know what I mean? Like that’s not that’s not what happened.

Like there’s people like freaking out about this, okay? Um so how do you do this? How do you go about doing this? Well, the plan is to deepen the I&M canal so that the river runs west instead of east.

Um and then everything just goes downstream and the rest of the people on the Mississippi can deal with it.

So that’s right.

It’s the 1860s, engineering aside, apparent total lack of concern over ecological consequences, it’s it’s just priceless.

But the question is, is it possible? And as I alluded to earlier, uh there’s a very special uh thing about the Chicago area, yet another one that just makes this actually possible and that is that Chicago is on a continental divide.

Now when I say continental divide, some people call it a subcontinental divide, there’s different definitions, again not a geology podcast, we’re sticking to the stuff that’s fun and just telling you the fun stuff as best I can.

Um but basically what it means, uh is that there’s two basins right here.

You know, we’ve been talking about it, you have the Mississippi drainage basin and the Great Lakes drainage basin.

Uh the Mississippi is 1.2 million square miles, uh it’s in 31 states and it drains into the Gulf of Mexico.

The Great Lakes, 300,000 square miles, 80% of North America’s fresh water supply and it drains through the St.

Lawrence to the Atlantic.

Okay, if you look at a map, look at a drainage map, not just like a regular map, it’s probably hard to see on a regular map.

Uh but you can see they cover 70% of the US as the US sits today.

So here’s the thing, as we said, the one flows south, one flows east, there is a reason for that.

Uh there is a continental divide right between them in Chicago.

So about eight miles west of Lake Michigan where the Chicago River enters the city, there’s an area called Oak Park.

Now despite being a relatively flat area, this is actually the center of a continental divide.

And what a continental divide what a continental divide is, it’s it’s you think of it as like a tipping point for water.

So think of the Rockies, everything west flows west, things on the east side flow east, uh just talking in general terms here.

Uh so despite being this flat area like I said, there is actually a continental divide in Chicago.

Uh there’s actually a museum in Oak Park uh for this divide, uh it’s called the Oak Park River Forest Museum, which I really wish we knew about when we were up there, it would have been awesome to check it out.

Uh but they have an online exhibit about the history of the divide and it’s important to the development of Chicago.

So the Oak Park divide, uh here the divide runs pretty much north and south in the Chicago area and on the west side of the divide, water flows to the Des Plaines River, uh down to the meet the Illinois in Joliet to the Mississippi and out to the Gulf of Mexico.

On the east side, before the reversal of Chicago River, the water would flow to the Chicago River into Lake Michigan and eventually through to the North Atlantic.

So this they call it the Oak Park split, uh actually used to be on what was called Lake Chicago 12,000 years ago when everything emptied west through to Illinois River.

But you can see this point in Chicago is the dividing line as to which way the water flows.

So not only is Chicago the closest point between the two major basins, it also fittingly is the divide between which way they flow.

Speaker 2: Interesting.

Speaker 1: So if you go to Lake Mud Lake, that where there is a lot of times not water, where this is where they aren’t connected, if there was water all the time then, you know, they would just be two connected systems, but they are not connected systems, they have never been connected systems up to this point.

They are two different enormous like globally significant water basins.

And the one goes down the Mississippi and the other one goes out to Lake Michigan and never should they meet by any like reasonable logic.

Um but they do get really close.

This is not a situation where it’s like the Rockies and one flows this way and one flows the other and that controls the this is a flat area in Chicago which just happens to be the high point so to speak where you don’t really see it, like you’re not going to walk through and be like, oh man, I’m tired of walking up this mountain, but it it is there and it is what divides the two water systems.

And they get really close because, you know, again it’s flat so it’s not a huge difference, but they get really close right there.

And that’s where they come up with the idea that you can reverse this river because basically if you just dig a channel from the south branch of the Chicago River to Joliet and dig it deeper on the west side than it is on the east side, your water from the Chicago River is just going to start flowing towards the Mississippi.

Speaker 2: Right.

So you just have to go deep enough past that like very low peak that divides all this, but it’s pretty flat.

Speaker 1: Right.

And because it’s not very high, it’s it’s theoretically feasible, so much so that they actually do it.

Speaker 2: I mean they just dug a whole thing in the in the lake over here to get water from the middle of the lake, why can’t they do this?

Speaker 1: Exactly.

I mean they’ve got time, they’ve got money and apparently all the trust in the world in Chesbrough.

So this is this is like… and you know what, forget all the people down the Mississippi, this is not a problem.

Okay, so again, two basins, they meet right here, originally you were portaging across them, taking the water route.

Um they’re so close that you can build a canal to connect them and they’re flat enough that you can dig the west side deeper enough so that the water will actually start flowing west instead of east when you attach it to the Chicago River.

Speaker 2: And this is just not just for the poop, this is also going to help trade, right? Because now you’re moving things on water.

Speaker 1: Yeah, that’s actually a really good point.

Um so like I said when they made the I&M, it was kind of both, it was like, hey we’re going to do a lot of transport, we’re going to do a lot of uh people moving as well.

And also uh when they do build uh the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, the plan is for it to be sanitary and ship, that’s why it’s called that.

Speaker 2: You know that’s funny because I didn’t necessarily make the connection until just now.

Speaker 1: Yeah, like I didn’t want to sound like I was making fun of you.

No, but it’s like it’s the Sanitary and Ship Canal because it was made for sanitary and ship.

Um but honestly like again it seems like with with all the the railroad and everything else and it just it the ship is less and less as time goes on in the future.

Speaker 2: Oh, okay.

Speaker 1: So it becomes more sanitary and then there’s a whole other problem with that.

So we’ll get into that in a later date.

Okay.

So here it is, we’re like great, let’s reverse the I&M canal and run our waste over to Illinois and let those suckers on the Illinois and Mississippi rivers deal with our waste.

Speaker 2: Nothing can go wrong here.

Speaker 1: PBS actually had a note on this and summed it up like this.

It says the reversal of the Chicago reversal of the I&M.

In 1871, July 18th, in a stupendous feat of engineering and with utter disregard for southern neighbors, engineers reversed the Chicago River’s direction.

Instead of carrying the city’s waste into Lake Michigan, the source of the city’s drinking water, the polluted water flows south toward the Mississippi.

Apparently Chesbrough got this idea from the fact if you remember way back to the first podcast I made a mention of this, but the plan for the I&M in the planning stages in the 30s was actually to do this.

Uh they actually had all the way back then wanted to actually make this what they were going to do with the canal.

And those financial hard times that we mentioned uh way back with the panic, um they almost bankrupted Illinois and it stopped working on the canal.

So those investors that came in to save everything and they said yeah, we’ll pay for this, they were like that’s awesome, we’re going to lend you, you know, one and a half million dollars, uh but we’re done with this reversing the river stuff.

Uh we just want the waterway.

Speaker 2: Oh, I see.

Speaker 1: So that’s why it got cut off, otherwise this actually would have happened way back when.

Yeah, kind of crazy.

But so they called this the shallow cut as opposed to the deep cut that would reverse the river’s course.

So if you ever see those phrases that’s what they’re talking about.

Originally it was going to be a deep cut is what they said you’re going to flow the whole water and then they went with the shallow cut when they made the canal.

Speaker 2: So it’s not Chesbrough getting into a rep fight with the people from St.

Louis.

Speaker 1: No.

So let’s look at the construction project and see what they actually do now.

So now in the 1860s they are ready to try it again.

The population is so much higher and they need the clean water so people are in on this.

So eventually they proceed with deepening the I&M for sanitation purposes, which directs the flow south all the way to Lockport where the canal is intersected by the Des Plaines River.

Now mostly they built this um in the winter in stages because it was frozen uh and it couldn’t be used anyway.

So that’s when they were starting to do the digging because there was nobody using the canal anyway.

Um and in 1871 it was completed at a cost of three million dollars.

Speaker 2: So just to dig that part to to deepen the I&M cost three million.

Speaker 1: Yeah, I think I just said 1971, it’s 1871, but I just realized obviously not 1971.

Uh but yeah, just to just to do the not expansion but the improvement to the I&M canal they spent three million dollars in 1871 to dig it.

So the opening, uh and this is a quote from the Smithsonian uh magazine.

It says after six years on July 15th, 1871, throngs of people crowded the riverbank to see workers chop down a temporary dam separating the river and the canal.

Speaker 1: The onlookers threw pieces of straw on the river and watched as they slowly began to float toward the canal and away from their drinking water.

Speaker 2: That’s impressive.

Speaker 1: It really is.

Speaker 2: I can imagine being there and just like all the people and just throwing stuff into it and just see it change.

Speaker 1: Yeah, the stun that you would see.

What would have been really cool is if when you went back a year later if it still did that.

Speaker 2: Are you saying it’s not?

Speaker 1: It does not.

No.

Speaker 2: In 1872 it was done?

Speaker 1: PBS says it stopped working in just a year.

After a year, the river stalls and returns to just being static sludge.

Speaker 2: Oh no.

So now we have mud river and mud lake.

Speaker 1: Yeah.

And actually there was another source that said 1880, again kind of like PBS, so I’m kind of going with them.

But they said this too is not enough as population increases.

Here we’re talking roughly 1880 when the population is 503,000 and this corresponding increase in waste once again has the population polluting its own water.

So the years are, they’re saying it worked for a few years a little bit better, they have it like working for nine years.

PBS is like, yeah, after the next year it kind of wasn’t working.

So, but somewhere in there the point is…

Speaker 2: It stopped working.

Speaker 1: Yeah.

Now, just a real quick word because I did bring up a few times about the railroads.

I just want to like slightly more specifically point out, obviously the railroads are just a huge part of Chicago’s growth and its ability to transport goods and become such a hub.

But we’re just not going down the road of railroads in this because it’s just too much of a story.

But one of the things we want to point out is when the railroads came in, it did kind of take over the people moving aspect of the canal.

So the I&M at that point became more of a goods transportation system and not really a people transportation system because that kind of, you know, took on that power for the city, that became the means to travel was through the railroads.

And obviously they’re transporting goods on railroads too.

So we’ve done all these things.

We’ve raised the city, we put in sewage, we dug a hole trying to get the water from the middle of the lake, we’ve reversed the I&M canal, it doesn’t work.

This is it.

City’s done screwing around.

They’re done screwing around.

They go in on a project that is so massive that it is one of the most amazing things ever built in the United States.

So here we are, the final steps in effectively and permanently reversing the Chicago River.

Everything we talked about up to this point, all the growth, all the waste that comes along with it, the need for transportation and goods, and that all culminates in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal.

As the Encyclopedia of Chicago describes it, they say in 1889 voters approved the Sanitary District Enabling Act, which led to the construction of the Sanitary and Ship Canal, essentially a larger version of the Illinois and Michigan Canal.

Or as the Smithsonian puts it in their magazine, in 1900 the Sanitary District of Chicago, a regional government agency, completed the new deeper Sanitary and Ship Canal, which has largely kept the dirty Chicago River running away from the lake even as the metropolitan area has grown to 9.5 million people today.

And honestly the fun part of this for me is the stories surrounding making and opening the canal, but let’s just start off with some facts and figures so you can just see how big this thing really is and kind of get an image of it so you know what we’re talking about.

So what are we talking about in magnitude? Okay, so this thing is just enormous.

They started in September on September 3rd, 1892.

Okay, so the main channel of this runs 28 miles.

If you are familiar with Chicago specifically, it runs between Damen Avenue, which was previously called Robey Street, and Lockport, linking the south branch of the Chicago River to the Des Plaines River.

So if you think back to our original description of the area, that means that part of the Chicago River that forms that backward C with the dash in it that goes out into the lake, that bottom part of it of the Chicago River is now going to be connected through the area that Chicago now sits on that previously they had to portage all their way over all the way down to the Des Plaines River, which means it’s then connected to the Illinois and then down to the Mississippi.

Speaker 2: So and it’s flowing the other way at this point.

Speaker 1: When they’re done with it, yeah.

So I’m just kind of giving you an idea what it is so you the whole time you know trying to figure out like where this is going I figured it’s easier to kind of describe it and then we’ll go back and talk about some of it because it’s a little bit more interesting like I said the stories building and everything.

So but it had a navigable depth of 20 feet and the width actually varied between 110 and 201 feet.

So this part stops with a dam at Lockport and would be enough to actually reverse the river.

So this actually does that.

They reverse the river and helps with the sanitation end.

But it doesn’t allow you to navigate any farther, so it’s not really a navigable waterway all the way through.

And that isn’t until 1907 when they put in an extension.

Speaker 2: Oh interesting.

Speaker 1: Yeah and this is completed all the way to Joliet and then they put in a navigation lock.

So then the Great Lakes are finally officially connected to the Gulf of Mexico with this system.

Now obviously they were previously but like I said it wasn’t working very well so it wasn’t an effective system whereas this is actually going to be an incredibly effective system for transport.

There’s actually a 34-foot drop between Lockport and Joliet that was a big part of the project so they had to put in a lock and a powerhouse to actually take the boats over this area to get them to keep going.

So again…

Speaker 2: That’s a big drop.

Speaker 1: Yeah it’s a big deal.

It was a big part of the project obviously.

And like I said this is, you know, there was always a waterway but these are the things obviously the ground isn’t level from, you know, the Atlantic Ocean all the way over to the Mississippi.

There’s all kinds of stuff you have to navigate through and that’s why, you know, at this time we’re already up to 1907 so the technology’s a little bit more capable of handling those things.

Speaker 2: So this whole thing started in 18, well the last part of it in 1892, right?

Speaker 1: Yeah.

Speaker 2: Okay and so at this point Chesbrough has been dead for a while.

I think he dies in 1886.

Speaker 1: Yeah this is, good point, yeah this is not a Chesbrough project.

This is, yeah we’ve jumped ahead a little bit like I said we’re in the 1900s.

So they started this project in 1892, right.

So but yeah this is a little bit farther.

Like I said the other one didn’t quite get done what they were looking for and obviously the population is even larger now.

And at this point this is, you know, we’re fixing this.

We’re finally going to do this.

This is not screwing around.

This is going to change the flow of the river forever.

Speaker 2: Right.

I’d also like to point out that in 1893 Chicago hosts the World’s Fair.

Speaker 1: Yeah I mean it’s a major metropolitan city at this point.

So yeah I mean it’s on the worldwide stage I would think so that’s, you know, it’s a good point to show that, you know, how big this city really is and in, you know, on the world stage and in the local United States area so.

But the EOC says that this project ends up costing $31,163,000, which I think is like over a billion dollars in, you know, today’s money.

So this is just an enormous project.

Speaker 2: Oh so that’s back then money and that’s 1907 money.

Speaker 1: Right exactly, yeah.

I don’t think you can build something like that today for $31 million.

That’s true.

Yeah I mean that would be nice but it would probably be like a trillion dollars with all the inflation.

But so the construction, let’s look at what it takes to actually pull this off, okay.

So they actually invent new equipment to do this.

So that’s kind of the cool thing about the time period we’re in.

It’s like well we need something that does this and then they just go off and invent one.

So they are making new equipment and what they actually have to do, they actually end up moving 40 million cubic yards of dirt to make this thing, well and stone and whatever was there to make way for this canal to come through.

They excavated over eight years to complete the main channel and this was constructed parallel to the I&M between Chicago and Lockport.

So first of all they deepened the river and then where there were areas that they couldn’t deepen it and go through the river they just went over the land and they used these huge steam shovels to do this.

So this is one of the things they kind of made for the project.

Speaker 2: That’s pretty impressive.

Speaker 1: Yeah and what I can see from in a picture there are pictures of these things.

I mean honestly they look like some kind of contraption out of a Star Wars movie.

It’s basically looks like maybe like a 60-foot long shipping container if you think of it that way.

And I don’t have measurements on this but there is like people there are people in the picture so I can kind of just gauge by what, you know, by the human height versus the size of this contraption they made.

So like I said it looks like it’s about 60 feet long and it’s basically just this huge box.

I’m assuming this is all steam-powered but on the end of it there’s a huge basically triangle of almost looks like I-beams that you use for…

Speaker 2: It kind of looks like a crane.

Speaker 1: Yeah exactly that they would use to build a house and then the front one moves back and forth and it has a big bucket on the front.

Kind of looks like the front of a or the back of a backhoe if you think about it, you know, it’s just like this big shovel that picks up the dirt while these guys are controlling it from the back.

Speaker 2: That’s impressive.

Speaker 1: Yeah it’s really a pretty I mean I mean if you think of it this is 1907 so it’s kind of cool that they did this.

I mean it’s not like people are all driving around in cars yet even, you know what I mean, so they’re making this thing out of, you know, what they have and making this huge earthmover.

Speaker 2: Right and you just have to think of the counterweight of it too so that might be why it’s so bulky in the back because you have to have a counterweight for the front once you pick up all that dirt.

Speaker 1: Exactly and there’s a stack coming out of the middle.

I can’t exactly tell.

I think that’s what they’re tying the front digging device to so like you say they can counterweight it back all the way to the back.

And I’m assuming the engine is probably either in the middle or in the back just to add that kind of weight to the back to counteract, you know, the lifting force in the front.

They were also using dynamite so there’s all kinds of explosions as a regular part of the construction of the main channel.

They modified the steam hoist like I said just to bring up the dirt and the rock.

It kind of neat they actually used the rock obviously when you’re you’re building if you’re not going to use it you got to do something with it.

Speaker 2: I was going to say where they put all this dirt and rock.

Do you know?

Speaker 1: Yeah so they actually cut up a lot of the stone and then they used it to line the channel.

Speaker 2: Oh that’s that’s good idea.

Speaker 1: Yeah because there was um there’s retaining walls for the 28-mile channel and it’s apparently it was 880,000 cubic yards of stone which they took out from the stuff that they blasted and then cut it up and put it into this to make the actual channel to to run the water through so.

The project also included they build 13 bridges and they actually relocated the Des Plaines River and then constructed a…

Speaker 2: It wasn’t enough to do moved all this stuff like let’s move this other river.

Speaker 1: Yeah they actually had to move it to make it connect up at the end, yeah.

And then they actually created a terminal at Lockport so this controlling works release the water from the main channel which came from the south branch obviously and Michigan and beyond and then came down through the dam.

So I mean it’s a canal I think you can kind of get a picture in your head of the simple version of it which is, you know, you’re you’re just digging a channel from one place to the other.

And then when you add in the complicated parts they would be obviously how hard it is to do that digging and that they had to make equipment to do it and then you have to make these locks and lifts and everything to get the water over the areas that you can’t just run a straight line of water through.

And then of course when this is all completed you have everything except the water.

Obviously have this blocked off during the process so you can actually do the construction and not obviously there’s no water there.

So then you get to the end.

So you have this whole thing built up and then you have your 28-mile canal that is going to reverse the river, it’s going to clean up your city, you have this extension then that’s going to allow the travel from the Atlantic all the way down through the Mississippi.

So that’s where we are they got this whole thing together and it’s still dammed up on the end.

And the events actually surrounding this opening are just chaotic and amazing.

So like I said now that we kind of know what we’re dealing with with the canal we’ll jump into this and and look at some of the things that happened around this.

I actually saw this story and didn’t know if it was like real or apocryphal but it seems to be completely corroborated.

So ilsos.gov which is the office of the Illinois Secretary of State, their website has it on here.

Encyclopedia of Chicago which I’ve used a bunch has it on there.

So everybody is saying that what I’m about to tell you was what actually happened.

Speaker 2: Oh I can’t wait.

This seems like the build up is…

Speaker 1: Yeah no it’s kind of awesome so.

So we get into now what we talked about earlier about, you know, the other cities.

And apparently so when they’re building this thing up St.

Louis finds out about it.

Obviously, you know, how can you hide it.

And they actually filed an injunction from the from the Supreme Court to stop the opening of the canal, okay.

So Chicago found out that that was going to happen, okay.

So now they’re all in a in a hurry, you know, they’re scurrying around they don’t know what to do because they’re like we just built this whole thing.

It’s like can you just imagine you spent all this money and like you didn’t…

Speaker 2: Right.

Speaker 1: Like what I don’t understand is they didn’t get clearance to do this like in advance it seems to be like this…

Speaker 2: There’s like we’re just going to go with it.

Speaker 1: Yeah it was almost like Chicago was just like we’re going to spend all this money they built this thing and then they’re like oh hey Governor, by the way we’re going to go ahead and connect these two enormous water systems and just start throwing our waste down the down the Mississippi.

Is that is that okay?

Speaker 2: I mean times were different you didn’t have all these government agencies that we have now and that’s probably this is this might be why it was created.

You know this is like this is why they we have the EPA and…

Speaker 1: Yeah but it’s just so but it’s just so enormous.

It’s like you can’t like you just…

Speaker 2: It’s like if someone to like tell you…

Speaker 1: It’s not like they were opening a McDonald’s, you know, like in the middle of a housing project and everybody’s like what, you know what I mean, like what how did this happen.

And even like apparently, you know, they told them no and what happened next.

Speaker 2: Well that’s the thing so like it it says St.

Louis found out about it like if you think of it that way everybody’s like yeah and St.

Louis then found finds out about it and it’s like what do you mean they found out about it.

Like how…

Speaker 1: Right.

Speaker 2: Like how was this not discussed.

How was this not all cleared up.

But anyway so St.

Louis is now on the case they’re issue, you know, trying to get injunctions filed.

And everybody in Chicago is now like I said they got to get their, you know, their ducks in a row and they’re like let’s get together.

And there’s a couple groups here it’s like the Governor there there’s a Sanitary District Trustees.

Um there’s all there’s all these like little groups here I don’t think there’s any particular need to enumerate them all and all their responsibilities.

But basically what happens is they just go to the Governor like are you going to let us do this or what are we going to be able to start this.

Um and in the meantime while the commissioners are waiting to see if they’re going to get this opened or not, apparently the Sanitary District Trustees they just go out in the freezing cold on January 2nd, 1900 and they’re like why don’t we just open this thing up.

So…

Speaker 2: So…

Speaker 1: And this was apparently like even better.

Like this is apparently like this is just awesome, okay.

So you have just remember everything I said about how big this dam is, okay.

So or how big the canal is.

Like well the dam’s obviously huge too because it’s this huge canal holding back just massive amounts of water.

So basically they prep this one area and they dam it up and like yeah this is where we’re going to, you know, crack the crack the dam open and everything’s going to come flowing here through here.

Speaker 2: Uh-huh.

Speaker 1: So apparently they go out and they’re like we’re just going to do this in the dead of night without telling anybody.

And they thought they they took like hand tools and they’re like yeah we’re just going to knock this down.

And I’m I’m going by PBS because there’s a few different versions of this but the I tried to put together the one that actually happened based on the newspapers and stuff like that.

So they’re out here with like apparently a pick and we’re like we’re just going to knock down this…

Speaker 2: Like a chisel.

Speaker 1: Yeah this huge I mean obviously this this doesn’t work.

Speaker 2: And then what happens if it breaks through and you’re on that side.

Speaker 1: Yeah I mean I think there was a couple pictures they had like guys like up on top and I I think they I think it was something like, you know, if you just just knock out the ends of it it’s just going to fall over type thing, you know what I mean, because there’s so much pressure pressure on it right but that’s, you know, if it was that weak then it would have fell over while you were working on the project.

Um but anyway so then next they go with dynamite.

So they’re like let’s blow…

Speaker 2: So the ice picks and chisels didn’t work.

Speaker 1: Yeah so now they’re just like we’re just going to blow this thing up.

Like let’s just blow it up.

So they they go with the dynamite.

Um and the thing is it was a dirt dam so it was frozen solid.

So it’s just this didn’t work.

And that’s one of the things that people have described and everybody’s like oh and then they blew up the dam and I think because it sounds cooler, um I think that’s one of the stories that’s kind of stuck around but from what I’m reading actually that didn’t work.

Um so they actually got a dredge and they had to go through and just like start moving the dirt to make this happen.

So it’s like they got like one of those earth earth mover machines they had to make that happen.

Speaker 2: So the dynamite didn’t work either.

Speaker 1: No the dynamite did not.

I mean it’s again it was it was like it was all packed up with dirt and earth so it’s kind of like just throwing dirt in a a dynamite in a pile of dirt thinking it was just going to neatly blow out exactly where you needed it to and it just like that’s, you know, that didn’t work so.

Um basically they get this moved out then finally they get the dredge they come in.

But that’s it.

There’s no fanfare, you know, it’s just these guys out there making this thing happen.

Like they’re just like you know what…

Speaker 2: Making all this noise in the middle of the night.

Speaker 1: We’ve been working on this thing for almost 10 years like I am not, you know, we’re not letting this happen and we we need this we need this to move forward.

So um so now the water runs down um to the Lockport dam.

Um and two weeks later um the Governor actually gives them approval to open the southern Lockport dam.

Um and that’s what I was saying here now you have like the full system.

Um so now you have Chicago’s system sewage running towards the Mississippi.

Um and then a little bit later on May 2nd, 1900 they actually have a huge ceremony so.

Um this is commemorated with all the grandeur that would be fitting of just how incredible this project really is so.

Speaker 2: Were there any repercussions from the Supreme Court and the St.

Louis…

Speaker 1: Yeah so they actually approve um they they actually kind of rule on the side of Chicago and um there’s a little bit more there are some lawsuits and stuff and and we’ll hit that at the end.

But yeah there there are some repercussions but honestly comparatively just almost nothing, you know, it’s not it’s not really that big a deal.

Um but I say they have this big ceremony.

Um the Chicago Tribune actually compares this to finishing the transcontinental railroad, um which I think is actually pretty apt comparison because it’s this huge network of system it’s the last spike so to speak um and this makes it all happen.

So there you are you get your water route you get your system to wash all the waste down the out of Chicago down the river um and they say like people would actually stop in Chicago on the bridges just to marvel at the blue water.

Because they just never had blue water all they had was like muddy disease water so.

Yeah it’s like hey blue water, you know.

Speaker 2: Oh wow.

Look at all this nice clean lake water.

Speaker 1: Exactly yeah so it’s actually I mean just an amazing thing that happened.

Um and then as for your um repercussions, yeah so the Supreme Court does rule in favor of Chicago.

Um but they had a bunch of claims filed and I didn’t dig too deep into, you know, the actual legal cases or anything I was…

Speaker 2: I’m sure that’s its own episode.

Speaker 1: Yeah I wasn’t looking for all that stuff there’s nothing more exciting than lawsuits right.

Um but as of 1919 I found a source that said the Sanitary District had settled merely 123 of the 272 claims filed for a total of just $370,000 out of the $2.4 million in claims.

Um and that was per PBS.

But if you think about that I mean really $2.4 million in claims who really, you know, the comparatively that’s the cost cost of doing business like they they got done what they wanted to get done.

Speaker 2: I mean it cost them 31 millions to build it so what’s another 2 million.

Speaker 1: Yeah it’s just the cost of doing business like they they got done what they wanted to get done.

Speaker 2: I was going to say what’s another 2 million but they didn’t even pay the 2 million they just…

Speaker 1: No yeah they only paid 370,000 and that’s they stopped this in in 1919 I guess people stopped paying attention at that point.

But yeah I mean it’s like you said they were like we have to get this thing moving because that’s kind of how things work sometimes, you know what I mean, just like you’re like well uh here’s the water, you know.

So then what are you going to do really, you know, how are you going to make them undo this.

They kind of spent all this money and to be honest everybody’s invested in Chicago being cleaner, you know, so it you just got to make it happen and that’s that’s what they did and it was just just fantastic.

Um but so how does this work with the sanitary part? Um does it actually clean up the water? Um and it totally um they they had to put in treatment plants and stuff.

So I mean it’s not like this gives you this fresh clean water and I don’t have stuff over like every year to see like, you know, was the water tested or anything like that.

Um but obviously it was cleaner at the time than what it was because it was just a disaster.

Um and then moving up to, you know, the future and getting closer to today, you know, they put in treatment plants and stuff.

But, you know, every city does that almost.

Well not quite every but most cities have treatment plants that they that they use to clean up the water so.

Speaker 2: Well I would hope that at this point it’s not all still just dumping into the river and they have like…

Speaker 1: Right, well they, they do have like the treatment systems, yeah.

So there’s all kinds of, I mean this is a much more complicated thing, yeah, when you get into the future, we all know how sanitation works, it’s a much more complicated system.

But they do have, the only problems I found, I was trying to see like if there are any huge problems with the water today just to kind of bring this thing up to today.

Apparently there’s a big lead problem with the water system, but the city says this is actually from the pipes leading to the homes with the water, it has nothing to do with like the actual water supply or the water system.

And then chicago.gov has, they have reports on this all the time, obviously everybody’s always, you know, complaining about water and trying to see how safe their water is.

But they say their tap water has met or exceeded all the standards of the EPA, it’s clean, you can drink it, they have annual reports showing how clean the water is and everything.

I don’t know, my sense is at this point it’s not really different than any other city kind of is where we’re at.

Speaker 2: I mean lead is just a thing that’s just going to be around for a minute, you can’t eradicate it.

Speaker 1: Yeah and like they said that’s in the pipes so, you know, again obviously it’s an enormous problem but it doesn’t have anything to do with the supply which is kind of what we’ve been looking at this whole time.

So, and the Chicago Department of Water Management and, you know, like I said they purify and deliver it says about a billion gallons of clean drinking water to residents of Chicago and 120 suburbs every day.

They have actually also created a system to get the lead pipes changed out with government assistance because you would, I’m totally guessing here, but usually these kinds of things, you know, they hit the people who are least able to afford it.

Speaker 2: Right, it’s always the poor communities that are getting affected by this stuff because it’s like they’re in the areas, the older areas and, you know, that were originally built with all this stuff.

Speaker 1: So, the only other thing I found was there was a chromium spill, the EPA settled with US Steel on that, apparently that caused a lot of problems but again, you know, it doesn’t have anything to do with the canal, it’s not the actual water supply system, it’s somebody screwing something up.

So, but you know these are all the more modern complicated problems, all in all I would say that the canal solved the issue that it set out to solve, you know what I mean? There aren’t like a lot of cholera reports going around today, you know what I mean? So I think it was actually a smashing success as far as what they were trying to accomplish.

And as for the shipping part, which is the other part of the equation, there’s some usage numbers I was able to find, a lot of them are kind of out of date, they’re like 2012 and going back for where I can find like actual good numbers.

But there have been a ton of modifications over time to the dam, you know they added pumping stations, there’s a million locks, I mean this is a modern day enormous canal system with just all kinds of contraptions going on to make it work.

But apparently it was like 31,000 metric tons went through in 2012, so that’s down from the 90s and it’s down to about 5% of the total freight going through Chicago.

So it’s mostly minerals and gravel and grain, basic chemicals and stuff like that going on the system because like I said they obviously have the rail system, trucking systems, everything going to the city, it’s a really, you know, enormous system of transport and it seems like what the gist of what they’re doing now with this canal is big bulky stuff, it’s cheaper to transport that’s not really time sensitive, it’s not going to go bad in the next two minutes.

Speaker 2: Right, you don’t have to refrigerate it.

Speaker 1: Right, it doesn’t, you don’t need it in 10 minutes, you know what I mean? So it kind of seems like it’s almost not like a backup system but it just kind of takes some of the pressure off, so you know time passes it goes from being this enormous, you know, system that’s doing pretty much everything they need it to do to being a thing that’s there and, you know, helping with the system but there’s other uses for it now at this point too, so.

Speaker 2: Right, like turning it green on St.

Patty’s Day.

Speaker 1: Right, that is actually, yeah it’s just like that movie The Fugitive is like why can’t we dye it blue the rest of the year if we can dye it green on St.

Patrick’s Day.

That’s what they should have just started with in the 1900s.

But no it’s this now where we’re at today, like let’s like bring it way up to where we are now, it’s like what is going on with this canal at this point? There’s actually a push to make it more productive, it seems like this is, there’s a lot of, I don’t know how intense it gets but people have kind of two sides here and it seems like one is let’s make this thing more useful for industry and the other is no it’s just recreation now.

So you know people are kayaking, there’s water taxis, there’s like little boat cruises, you know what I mean? We’ve been up to the riverwalk, everybody wants to go down the riverwalk and there’s things there to do, obviously the water being the main attraction.

Speaker 2: Well and now they built all these restaurants along, you know, the river like set like you have to go down steps to be like closer to the river and there’s like restaurants and.

Speaker 1: Yeah exactly, so that’s kind of the, that’s kind of the main argument is like should this be still used for industry or should this just be more of like a residential and entertainment function for the city.

Speaker 2: Yeah there’s definitely people on canoes and stuff and then boating and yachting and people going to the lake and coming back.

Speaker 1: Yeah but there is, like I said there is the industrial side they’re trying to get stuff back, they say, you know, there’s a thing called Great River Chicago, they have these infrastructure goals and it’s to rehabilitate sections using the US Army Corps of Engineers so they can get more transport, you know they want to complete tunnels and reservoirs and stuff like that, you know, and reduce the storm water, eliminate sea overflow, all these kind of things.

So it’s they have this whole comprehensive plan where they’re like let’s turn this into, you know, a more functioning part of the city like it was originally intended and you said obviously the other people are like no we don’t, you know, we don’t really want to do that, we’re all here now let’s just kind of keep it what it is.

Another thing that comes onto the end of that with part of their plan, they claim that there are things they can do to help with the invasive species from moving into like Michigan, obviously invasive species whole other topic, that is actually going to be coming up in the future, kind of laughing because that was actually the original point of this topic, yeah that and like I said way back when I heard about they raised the city for the sanitation aspects I always found that fascinating and then you just, you know, kind of keep going so.

But as of right now like I said it’s a lot of recreation and a little bit of transport so that’s what we’re looking at so.

Speaker 2: And what about the I&M canal?

Speaker 1: Yeah, oh just a little bit of wrap up on that.

The I&M canal today is not, it’s not used for transport anything like that.

But just like a little sum on the history of what happened.

The Chicago Sanitary District was created in 1889, we talked about that and on September 3rd 1892 is when they started the Chicago Sanitary Ship Canal.

When this project was completed like we said it was 1900, the eastern part of the I&M immediately became obsolete, okay.

And then after that they pretty much closed it to navigation completely.

Speaker 2: So is it still around or is it like did they drain it?

Speaker 1: It is there, it’s actually kind of interesting they kind of salvaged it for like I said recreation and historical use.

So but there’s no, there’s no traffic, they’re not using it so you know it’s not being functioned like as not shipping anything over is what I’m saying.

Speaker 2: Is it like the High Line in New York and Philly where they took the old L tracks and made them into a park?

Speaker 1: Yeah so apparently they now they have trails and it’s a heritage site and there’s only I think there’s only a little bit of it that you can still see in Chicago.

I did look up pictures though you can like walk down it they have signs and stuff like there.

But in 1984 President Reagan had actually signed legislation creating the Illinois and Michigan Canal National Heritage Corridor.

So it was actually the first heritage corridor in the nation by the way so you know that was kind of nice.

So but the concept actually encouraged canals and trail preservation so it has a nice, you know, a nice lasting heritage, this is kind of like the start of people saying like hey why don’t we, you know, actually use these areas kind of clean them up a little bit, have some trails and stuff like that that people can walk on and remember the past.

So with that that’s going to end the story.

Did you have any more questions about anything for me?

Speaker 2: No, no not that I can think of.

Speaker 1: So in sum the mud they had they cleaned it up with the sanitation system.

They had disease, they finally got the water and waste to run the other way.

I think the big question here is was it a success?

Speaker 2: I mean the city kept growing so I would say yes, you know.

Speaker 1: Yeah and it’s again I think it’s one of these things where you break it down and you look, you know, the sanitation, the disease, all the things that you wanted out of this proper, you know, system actually that worked over time it evolves, you know, becomes a modern sanitation system, it’s a huge piece of that.

There is an all water route, I mean that is undeniable, you know, that’s something that everybody wanted at the time.

Speaker 2: Joliet will be happy.

Speaker 1: Yeah exactly.

And it’s down to 5% of the transport of goods but now it’s also got the aspect where using it for entertainment and stuff like that so I mean it’s hard to not, you know, not think that’s a big part of it.

Speaker 2: It is really pretty, I have to say that I enjoy it, you know, I was just recently there and it is really nice to see it.

Speaker 1: Yeah but I think, I think basically if you’re looking at it it just depends when you look at it and what you’re looking for, you know what I mean? It’s like you there are such enormous ecological problems created by this that we’re going to talk about in the future.

But as far as what their goals were, I think it’s just when are you looking at it, what were we trying to accomplish, you know over time things changed back then you wanted an all water route, you got that.

You wanted to know, you know, could you clean up our sanitation, clean up our water, you got that.

Then you end up after you stuck your foot in it now you have all these huge ecological problems which, you know, we will talk about in the future.

But for me I, it’s always complicated when you know how bad things can end up in the future for things that, you know, the unintended consequences.

But it’s just such an incredible thing that we built so I hate to not be able to be just excited about what these people accomplished.

Speaker 2: Well I mean hindsight is 20/20 so you know now that we’ve seen it all but they couldn’t have thought of all these like repercussions.

Speaker 1: Yeah so for my money it’s just such an incredible story, I’m really just glad I got to learn more about it so.

But with that let’s wrap it up, it’s time for Julia’s big takeaway.

What did you think was the most interesting part of our story today Julia?

Speaker 2: Well besides the raising of the city and how impressive that was and just all those jacks and just seeing the picture of it and just looking at it and just making those just the feat of making those and knowing that they had to make so many of them to raise the city, that one’s pretty impressive.

But I think what strikes me the most is how differently things worked back then, how, you know, Chesbrough is basically just this self-taught guy just doing things and coming up with all these ideas looking around and, you know, but he has no foresight of like what’s going to happen when he does all this.

Speaker 1: I like to think about that as like you look back and you’re like I always think like I could have been an inventor like 100 years ago like where today I couldn’t possibly invent anything that somebody hasn’t already perfected a million times more than I could even conceive of.

But it’s like you said like back then you’re like well what we need to do is this and then you just think well I know they did this over in Europe and then you just kind of modify it along the way and you’re like oh and then we’ll make these jacks that you just spin them.

Speaker 2: Yeah and also like he didn’t have the information that we have now or like he didn’t have the internet to just google something or look something up or even the books weren’t the same as they were, you know, just because stuff is written in in German in German books he doesn’t have access to that.

He’s a like self-taught guy that doesn’t speak four languages to read all these books and get all this knowledge.

Speaker 1: But that’s it, you kind of make it up along the way and you’re like I’m an intuitive guy, I can figure this out, I can make this happen.

Speaker 2: So he’s just like oh they did this but he’s actually not understanding why they did it, how they did it, is there like repercussions from it or you know he’s just kind of like alright I’m going to do it.

Speaker 1: Yeah you kind of shooting from the head at that point.

Speaker 2: Right and not even caring about the people in St.

Louis and down the Mississippi they’re just like oh whatever.

Speaker 1: Yeah it’s the old following orders scenario where you’re like well this is what they’re paying me for so this is what I’m going to do, that’s not my problem down there.

And we will see like I said coming up in the future at some point when we get to that it is just an enormous problem.

Speaker 2: Well I was going to say but we still do that now as much as the government tries to manipulate.

Speaker 1: Oh yeah we just stick our foot in stuff, try to fix stuff, it’s ten times worse and then after you’re done with it you’re like oh what did we do here? Well let’s just spend another trillion dollars trying to clean it up.

So with that that’s going to do it for the second half of or I should say second part of our podcast series on the Chicago River and the reversal of their backward river.

Sources for this entry will be on informatorium56.com and of course you can email the show at informatorium56@gmail.com.

Thank you so much for visiting us here at the Informatorium, we wish you a happy, healthy and beautiful journey and until we see you again look on the bright side and good luck.

Speaker 2: Bye.