Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1899-11-20
An ENGINEERING TRIUMPH.

Unless the engineers plans miscar-
ry, the early days of December next
will see the waters of Lake Michigan
finding an outlet to the sea by two
separate and widely divergent routes;
the one being by the natural outlet
through the Great Lakes and the st.
Lawrence River to the North Atlantic,
and the other through an artificial
channel connecting the lake by way
of the Illinois River with the Missis-
sippi and the waters of the Gulf.
The Chicago drainage canal, as this
channel is called, will easily take
rank as one of the monumental engi-
neering works of the century. Not
only will it form one of the greatest
artificial canals in existence, compar-
ing in Importance with the ship canals
of the world, but as work of munic-
ipal sanitation it is easily the greatest
work of its kind ever undertaken.
For whatever Importance it may
assume in the future as new route
to the sea for the WaterbOrne COM
MERGE of the lakes, the canal was
originally planned as radical method
of solving the problem Of sewage dis
posal for the city Of Chicago. Tt was
realized fully a decade and a half ago
that the time was approaching when
it would no longer be possible to dis
charge the sewage of this great city
into the same source from which it
drew its water supply. Vast as is the
volume of Lake Michigan it was only
question of time before the polluted
waters Of the Chicago River would
find their way into the intake tunnels
through which the water supply of the
city was drawn in. However far the
intake might be extended into the
lake. the polluted stream under the
influence of local currents invariably
followed, until the problem of some
other method of disposal had to be
faced.
The plan adopted was at once dar-
ing and original. It involved the cut
ting Of a great canal twenty two feet
in depth, from 1872 to 2O2 feet wide,
Lake Michigan to the Illinois River,
tributary to the Mississippi, and turn
ing the sewage of the city into the vast
drainage thus created. In this way
the polluted waters would be kept
constantly in motion until they were
lost in the great volume of the Mis-
sissippi itself. By the time it is COM
pleted, the work will have involved
the excavation of nearly forty million
cubic yards of material, of which no
less than twelve thousand yards will
represent solid rock, the other twenty
eight thousand yards consisting chiefly
of glacial drift. The excavation of
the canal involved the diversion of the
Des PLANES River and the provision
of suitable works to control it's waters
and preserve the integrity of the ca
nal in times of flood. AS is invariably
the case in works of this character, the
actual cost has greatly exceeded
the preliminary estimates, and by the
time the work is fully completed it
will have cost the city of Chicago
fully thirty million dollars.
The approaching completion of the
work, which will provide waterway
capable of accommodating large ships
of 10 and 20 feet draught, has natu-
rally suggested the possibility of a
through water way to the Gulf of
Mexico by way of the canal, and the
Mississippi River. The canal is, of
course, much deeper than the Illinois
River Or the upper reaches of the
Mississippi, and to secure even the
Il foot channel proposed would entail
a heavy expenditure on the part of
the government.
1t is natural that the people of Chi
cago, having in view the enormous
development of commerce by way of
the lakes and the Welland Canal,
should find the prospect of another
waterway to the seaboard very allur-
ing and he would be bold prophet
who at this early stage should deny
that it would be profitable undertake
ing. The decadence of steamboat
traffic on the Mississippi since the
development of the great railroad
systems is a discouraging feature;
but it must be remembered that the
opening of 14-foot waterway from
Chicago to New Orleans, would place
the question of river traffic on a very
different basis from that under which
it has made such a losing fight against
the railroads. Scientific american.
LaGrippe, with its after effects, annually de-