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The Chicago Portage National Historic Site is outlined in red and the map shows the entrance to Mud Lake and the West End Landing. Chicago Portage From Knight and Zeuch Study Further proof that the original course of the Des Plaines River is as shown comes from the third map, one of many from the Knight and Zeuch study of the Chicago Portage.
The Illinois and Michigan Canal (I&M) opened in 1848. In 1900, the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal replaced the I&M and reversed the flow of the Chicago River so it no longer flowed into Lake Michigan. The United States Army Corps of Engineers maintains a 9-foot-deep (2.7 m) navigation channel in the waterway. [1]
The waterway allows passage from the Atlantic Ocean to the inland port of Duluth on Lake Superior, a distance of 2,340 miles (3,770 km) and to Chicago, on Lake Michigan, at 2,250 miles (3,620 km). [3] The elevation change from Lake Superior to sea level is 601 feet (183 m).
In 1892, the direction of part of the Chicago River was reversed by the Army Corps of Engineers with the result that the river and much of Chicago's sewage flowed into the canal instead of into Lake Michigan. The complete reversal of the river's flow was accomplished when the Sanitary and Ship Canal was opened in 1900.
The Chicago Portage National Historic Site is a National Historic Site commemorating the importance of the Chicago Portage [2] in Lyons, Cook County, Illinois, United States. It is located in Chicago Portage Forest Preserve and the Ottawa Trail Woods Forest Preserve, at the junction of Portage Creek with the Des Plaines River , on the west side ...
The Calumet River, on the south side of Chicago, originally simply drained Lake Calumet to Lake Michigan. A canal extending it, legendarily claimed to have been created by voyageurs at the site of a frequent portage, was dug connecting the two Calumet Rivers at the point where the name now changes from Grand to Little.
A reversal flow of the Chicago River into Lake Michigan would have a negative impact on navigation and on the quality of Lake Michigan water, which is the source of drinking water. [5] Chicago's raw sewage in the river is normally carried upstream toward the Mississippi River which flows south towards the Gulf of Mexico.
The Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, historically known as the Chicago Drainage Canal, is a 28-mile-long (45 km) canal system that connects the Chicago River to the Des Plaines River. It reverses the direction of the Main Stem and the South Branch of the Chicago River, which now flows out of Lake Michigan rather than into it.