Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1898-08-25
CHICAGO'S GREAT CANAL.
A DRAINAGE SYSTEM WHICH is ONE
OF THE WONDERS OF THE WORLD.
Twenty-Five Million Dollars Already Ex-
pended mount of Excavation dual
to Half o THAT of tho Sucz Canal
Nations Share in the Project.

The audacity with which Chicago's great
civic works nave been planned and con-
structed has frequently startled the COuu-
try. But few holder projects, even i'm the
Worlds Fair city were ever undertaken
than the turning of Chicago River back
wards, and the pouring through it as part
OF great drainage canal of 3UooOO cubic
feet of water per minute from Lake Mich.
igan into the Mississippi. And yet this
huge work is nearly completed, and at the
engineers office was Informed that By
August, 1899, the big - w"r will be in ac-
tual operation. says the Chicago CORE
spondrnt Of the Boston Transcript VINO
proceeds as follows ALREADY $25,N0,OUO
have been expended upon it, and some
good sized bills and claims for damages
are yet to be settled. Before the NiCara-
guam canal is begun it may be well To
see the final footings of the Chicago drain
age, which must rank among the great ar
tiiiCial waterways of the world, and the
PECULIARLY of it is that the corporation OF
Il single city should have had the courage
to assume the financial responsibility.
Nature helped the project enormously in
making the watershed between LAX"
Michigan and the Mississippi basin at this
point only eighteen feet above the Lake
level and but twelve miles out from Chi
cago. 1t IS Il remarkable geographical
fact that the Great Lakes drain a rela-
lively small area. Rarely is the water
shed found more than nifty miles back from
the shore, In Ravenna, o., forty miles
south Of Cleveland. there Is a court house
where the rainfall on the north side of
the roof runs into Lake Erie while that on
the south side drains into the Ohio In
New York the sources of the Mohawk,
which flows into the Hudson are only a
few miles from Lake ontario. In Illinois
the Illinois River heads close to Lake
Michigan The height of land north OF
Lake superior is less than hundred miles
from that lake and beyond the height the
waters all flow To Hudsons Bay. No large
river flows into the lakes, and the course
OF the small streams that empty into them
Is peculiar. Trace one of them on the
map and you VIII find that only few
miles back from the lake ii makes a sharp
turn, and that its upper course is parallel
to the lake shore. one of the largest of
the lake aifiuents Is the ST. Louis River,
which empt,es into the head of Lake SUI
perior: but sixty or seventy miles from its
mouth, in FIAT, pinc-Covcred country.
are the lakes that form the sources of
the Mississippi.
I his characteristic Of the lake country
was natures great conccs sion to the
canal project. For years the Chicago
River has been a remarkably accommo-
dating stream, flowing i'm times of floods
and high water naturally into Lake Mich
igan and at other times backwards to-
ward the old Illinois and Michigan canal.
which was designed TO do on a small scale
about the same thing as the new Drain
age canal But even If the land was level
and the watershed near, it has been no
holiday task to construct the great canal.
In order to make room for the volume of
water from the lake to to get through the
city, the Chicago Pivcr has been drcdgcd
ana dccpcned. in places widcncd. and in
addition a bypass" has been constructed
between Adams ana Van Buren, streets,
which Is simply a covered up river nifty
feet wide, running under the property of
the Pennsylvania Railroad company. THIS
was made necessary because the natural
stream was here so narrow that II could
not well be decpcncd, and property was
so valuable that they could not afford to
widen it, and if the whole volume of
water We're - ne drawn through the eX-
listing channel it would make a current
SO swift as to spoil the river for naviga-
ton. outside the city the main channel.
twcnty-eight miles in length, may he di-
vidcd into two parts that through glacial
drift. or ordinary earth where the work
has been comparatively easy and so the
dimensions of the canal fixed at the mini
mum requirements. and that through solid
rock where the cost of an endorsement
at any future time would be so great that
a channel double the size which now
seems necessary has wisely been cut The
part of the canal first described is 10 feet
wide on the bottom. with two on one
side slopes. while the rock excavation is
100 feet on the bottom, and through this
part of the distance the work mas cost
81 .O0O. OOO n mile The channel will average
36 feet in depth and when completpd will
be a free waterway navigable for any
craft drawing less than % feet of water.