chicago river 01.28.10

city form: civil engineering

 
By the 1890’s 1% of Chicago’s population was dying each year from typhoid, a result of sewage flowing from the Chicago River into Lake Michigan, the city’s source of drinking water. In a bold feat of engineering, in 1900 the flow of the river was reversed through the construction of the Chicago Sanitary & Ship Canal. Compared in scope and accomplishment to the Panama Canal, in 1955 it was voted one of the 7 wonders of engineering in the U.S. by the American Society of Civil Engineers. Canvassed in 1999 to identify 10 projects of the last century that had the greatest positive impact on life in the 20th century, the Society again included the Chicago Waste Management project on its list, along with the Hoover Dam, the Golden Gate Bridge, the California Water Project, and the Empire State Building.http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/263.htmlhttp://www.mwrd.org:80/irj/portal/anonymous?NavigationTarget=navurl://138bf9fb3cd95634e37c28ef50eccef1hoover_dam.htmlshapeimage_6_link_0shapeimage_6_link_1shapeimage_6_link_2