The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-01-16
JOINS LAKE
AND RIVER
A Big Drainage Canal
Opened.
VAST ENGINEERING WORK
Completion of an Enterprise That En-
sures Chicago's Health and May
be Used for Boats.

| CiiOAuO' Jan. Z--lne $4,000 .OOC
canal, at present used for sewage. but
ultimately to be used as a ship canal
is in use today, after seven years OF
hard work by the trustees of the San
itary District, which is the name of 4
corporation, including the large 9art
OF the city of Chicago and many of its
suburbs. At least the Chicago end Of IL
Is in use, but the water has not vet
reached the other end, at Lockport. H..
and will not reach it for several DAYS.
Probably never before has the com
| pletion Of public work of such magni-
tude been marked with such absolute
lack of ceremony. There were no
speeches, no exercises, no cheering.
About s a. m. the Sanitary District
trustees and engineers gathered at the
scene. Besides few wOrkmen. there
were not a dozen spectators. There
was no grand rush of water, to be fol-
lowed by the cheers of spectators. In
deed, the opening of the canal resam-
bled more the tiny stream of water that
flowed over the Holland dyke. and
grew larger and larger. until IT swept
a great hole in the wall OF earn Th,ti
is the way the great canal was opened /
This method was ased to avoid Ii
robbed the BBtlfR Jusb Of water. blgi.l
ness.
The canal has been built ID carry
100000 cubic feet a minute, bit only
about 10000 minute will be admitted
until the channel IS full. About
Wednesday at noon the water /: expect
ed to reach LockpOrt, and in four days
from the time the flow began the canal
viii be full, and the water vii began
to run over the sills at the gate at
LOckpOrt, twenty-eight miles fr'm Chi
cagO. There it will fall into the
Desplaines river, and then into the
Illinois and Mississippi. and 81 finally
Lake Michigan will shake hands with
the Gulf of Mexico.
a comparison of the three Big canals
constructed during the pas decade
shows that the Manchester gnal has
total length of thirty-five miles, a
depth of twenty-six feet, bottom
width of 100 feet and cost 81, ,0OO. 900.
AA' AbdAAli tcAlldl+ ID SlAlN-OuE anu Out-I
half miles in length, of about the same
depth as the Manchester, about eighty
feet wide and it cost $37,44OJOO The
Chicago excavation is twnty-eightI
miles in length, thirty-five ieet deep
and from $50 to 210 feet vide at the
bottom, and will cost $33 1900. It
was not until August, 1885,. when a
rainfall OF $50 inches in tventy-fOurl
hours caused a flood which carried the
FlVer sewerage out to the water supply
crlD In the lake that the importance Of
taking active measures to relieve the
city from disease became apparent.
BY law passed on the 29th of MAY.
1889, the sanitary district was Gre
ated, and ground was broken in the
main channel of the canal August S,
1892. The canal follows along the gen.
eral line of the old Illinois and Michi-
gan canal, built in 1S36-4S, and to make
room the Desplaines river was shifted
to new bed for a distance of thirteen
miles, while a massive embankmentl
was built for twenty miles to prevent
floods down the valley.
Leaving the west fork of the Chicago
river One-half mile west of theold chan
mel, the new canal passes through allu-
v1um and bowlder clay for seven miles
N-A~ @1~SPAoAAto AANSA dG DulAAAAA4Nf |
thence through bowlder clay and rock
six miles TO Willow Springs: thence six
miles through a variety of material to
below Sag, and finally for a distance Of
nine miles through solid rock. scarcely
covered by turf, into the Desplaines
river and then into the Mississippi T.
For a distance Of fifteen miles below
Willow Springs the channel Is 16O fee-
vide at the bottom with an additional
TWO feet at the top, the sides being !
'arried up by retaining walls where the
rock fails to reach the surface TheI
thirteen miles Of earth cuttings has a
'hInnel 202 feet wide az the bottom, {
he general depth being thirty-five feet. Z
The canal will develop a fourteen =
DOT barge navigation through 900 miles 4
IF the DRspIaines and Illinois rivers 70 I
ne Mississippi This. in conjunction {
with the improvements on the Nissis- ,
ippi river already commenced. viii en-l
.6Ie navigation TO be maintained be- :
ween the great lakes and the Gulf OF
Mexico for the greater part Of each
ear. u