The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1900-01-06
BIG DITCH IS OPENED.
Wafer Ia Turned Into the Famous
Drainage Canal Mt Chicago
No Formal Ceremonies,

Chicago, Jan. 3.-At nine o'clock
Tuesday morning water was turned
into the $33,O0O,0O0 drainage canal and
began TO flow toward Lockport, where
it will fall into the Desplaines river,
and thence, through the Illinois and
Mississippi rivers, to the Gulf of Mex
leo. What is termed by the canal en-
gineers the collateral channel has been
for some time completed from the Chi
cago river in the southwestern part of
the city to within Is feet of the main
channel of the canal. This 15-foot wall
of earth with two sluice gates behind
it has been all that has kept the Chicago
river and Lake Michigan out of the
canal. At ten O'Clock Monday night
steam dredge began to cut away this
wall of earth and a few minutes be-
fore nine o'clock the water in the coll
lateral channel was against the sluice
gates, and only few inches of tim
Der remained to be removed before
Chicago was to realize her dream of
years and see the great canal in actual
operation. When the water began to
back up against the sluce gates the
timbers were knocked away and the
first water from the Chicago river ran
into the canal. The engineers of the
sanitary district have cut channel to
carry 100000 cubic feet of water
minute, but Tuesday the water was al
lowed to flow into the canal at the rate
of only $4,000 cubic feet a minute. The
effect Of turning 100000 cubic feet Of
water a minute into the empty canal
would be like the bursting of a reser-
voir and would tear away every bridge
over the canal and wreck the control
ing works at Lockport. Therefore the
water will be turned in gradually.
An occasion that might have been
made one of the most memorable in
the eventual history of Chicago was
suffered TO pass by unimproved because
the trustees of the sanitary district
were intent only on their one great aim
THE opening of the canal. Aside from
the trustees and the engineers Of the
board, there were less than a dozen
spectators present.
Probably no public work has ever been
undertaken by any other state or munich
pality which. from its very Inception was
| designed to do so much for the navisable
and commercial interests of the country
as the Chicago canal. The requirement Of
law which compelled the construction of
rock sections to meet the demands of the
next generation was wise, for 1t has laid
the foundation of a mammoth ship canal,
connecting the great lakes with the Missis
sippi river ana the gulf. and saving the
sanitary district of Chicago and the federal
government the great expense that would
In the future he necessary in rock eXcuva-
tion and blasting under the flowing water.
The canal, IL confined by law TO the single
requirement of disposing of Chicago's
sewage, could have been constructed for
from 1921 900 to $4,000, 000 so the sanitary
district can justly claim to have expended
at least $20,0M,GoU in the direction of the
great navigablc waterway.
The first work in this great enterprise
was begun on Shovel day" September 3,
1892, OH the rock cut below I.cmont. on the
line between Cook and Will counties; 80
that little over seven years have been
consumed in the entire work, involving an
outlay of about $32,ooOOO0. Over 50 per
cent Of the entire work was done during
the so-callcd panic period and, owing to
this fact the entire cost of construction
was reduced about $1,000 900. Indeed, the
board OF trustees and its engineers are
unanimous in the belief that the work
could not now be duplicated under existing
prices for both labor and Material Tor loss
than &000D;0O0
The canal has been constructed in strict
conformity with the requirements of the
law under which the sanitary district Of
Chicago was organized and it is of sufii-
cent size and capacity to produce and
maintain at all times Il continuous flow of
at least 3O0.dD' cubic feet of water per min
ute, with II current not exceeding one mile
per hour. The flow of water is Of the min
imum depth of % feet in the earth sections
Of the canal, AID the same depth through
ont the rock sections
The sanitary district of Chicago COM
prises all OF the city north of Eighty
seventh street, together with some 43
square miles of Cook county, outside OF
the city limits. which will be directly bene-
fitted by the Improvement. The populati ton
of the city of Chicago in 1890 according to
the federal census. was l,u90,S $50, and the
equaliZed assessed valuation of real estate
and other property subject to taxation in
the sanitary district for the year 1898 was
$2lS29?,!7, being about one-tenth of the
real value.