Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1900-01-05
WATER IS TURNED IN
Great Drainage Canal Is Formally
Opened in Chicago
no FORMAL CEREMONY is HELD.
Flow ut Present Is Only 10000 Cubic
Feet, but Amount Will he In
creased Gradually Until the Full
100000 Cubic Feet Is Flowing.

Chicago, Jan. 3.-At nine o'clock
Tuesday morning water was turned
into the $50, 100000 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 few minutes be-
fore nine o'clock the water in the col
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 sluice 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 a
minute, but Tuesday the water was al
lowed to flow into the canal at the rate
of only $4,000 cubic feet minute. The
effect of turning 100000 cubic feet of
water a minute into the empty canal
would be like the bursting of 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.
About to-day noon the water is eS-
pected to reach Lockport, and about
four days from the time the flow be-
gan, according to the estimate of the
chief engineer, the canal will be full
of water, which will begin to run over
the sills of the controlling gates at
I.ockport, % miles from Chicago.
There it will fall into the Desplaines
river, then into the Illinois and Mis-
sissippi rivers, and SO finally Lake
Michigan will shake hands with the
Gulf of Mexico.
An occasion that might have been
made one of the most memorable in
the eventful history of Chicago was
suffered to pass by unimproved because
the trustees of the sanitary district
We're 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.
Historical Sketch of Canal.
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 navigable
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 it has laid
the foundation of a mammoth ship canal,
connecting the great lakes with the Missis-
sippi river and the gulf, and saving the
sanitary district of Chicago and the federal
government the great expense that would
in the future be necessary in rock eXcava'
ton and blasting under the flowing water
The canal, If confined by law to the single
requirement of dsposing of Chicago's
sewage, could have been constructed fol
from sl2 100000 to $4,000, 600, so the sanitary
at least s2O,0O0,OO0 in the direction of the
great navigable waterway.
The first work in this great enterprise
was begun on Shovel day." September 8
1892, on the rock cut below Lemont, on the
line between Cook and Will counties; sc
that little over seven years have beer
consumed in the entire work. involving al
outlay of about S33,000.000 Over so pei
cent. of the entire work was done during
the so-called panic period and, owing tc
this fact, the entire cost of construction
was reduced about $S,0O0,0GO. Indeed, the
unanimous in the belief that the work
could not now be duplicated under existing
prices for both labor and material for less
than $40C00,00o
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 stuff
cient size and capacity to produce an(
maintain at all times continuous flow o!
at least 100000 cubic feet of water per min
ute, with a 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, and the same depth through
out the rock sections.
The sanitary district of Chicago com
prises all of the city north of Eighty
seventh street, together with some a
square miles of Cook county, outside O.
the city limits, which will be directly bene
fitted by the Improvement. The populatio.
of the city Of Chicago in 1880. according t.
the federal census. was 109O,S50, and tn.
eqnaliZed assessed valuation of real estate
and other property subject to taxation il
the sanitary district for the year 1888 wa
,s2lS. 299,977. being about one-tentb Of III,
real value
MORE THAN EXPECTED.