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The Hydrological Engineering of the Chicago River Reversal
During the late nineteenth century, the rapid industrial expansion of Chicago triggered a profound municipal health crisis. Millions of gallons of untreated sewage and slaughterhouse effluent flowed daily into the Chicago River, which drained directly into Lake Michigan. Because the municipal water supply relied entirely on offshore intake cribs located within the same body of water, storm surges frequently swept contamination into the drinking system. Severe outbreaks of waterborne diseases, particularly typhoid and cholera, prompted the Illinois legislature to establish the Sanitary District of Chicago in 1889 to design a permanent sanitary intervention.
The proposed solution required a daring hydrological intervention: reversing the current of the Chicago River so that urban effluent would flow away from Lake Michigan into the Mississippi River basin. To achieve this diversion, civil engineers directed the excavation of