In the center of the nineteenth hundred , Chicago embark on a quest to literally lift itself out of the mud . H2O could n’t enfeeble from the low - lying metropolis , so its streets became impassable swamps . The most sensible solvent , Chicago decided , was just to raise the whole goddamn city by 4 to 14 foot .
Unlike most other metropolis , Chicago sit just a few metrical unit above the piss stage of Lake Michigan . Water flows down , so building a organization that properly drained all of Chicago ’s stormwater and sewage would ask a whole lot of excavation . That was deem too expensive . The metropolis was naturally pinch up or else .
Remarkably , life story in the city went on as normal — as normal as life in such a rapidly develop city can be . The Tremont House , Chicago ’s most soaring hotel , was raised inch by inch over several days as guests , including a U.S. senator , reside inwardly . An integral half block of Lake Street was also lifted in one huge engineering science feat . The applied scientist behind it ? A unseasoned George Pullman , who would go on to amass a portion with his Pullman dormancy cable car . WBEZ describeshow Pullman get out it off :
He had 6,000 jackscrews put under the construction , and hired 600 men to take charge of ten jacks each . On the signal , each man turned the screws on his ten jacks one notch . The buildings went up a fraction of an column inch .
This process was repeated again and again over four day . Meanwhile , temporary timbers were placed under the building and Modern foundations fabricate . Then the construction were lower into place . All this was swimmingly done , while business inside the building went on as usual .
In other case , whole buildings were dug up , put on logs , and rolled to a entirely new localisation . AScotsman see Chicagoin 1868 observed , “ Never a daylight elapse during my stop in the city that I did not receive one or more houses shift their quarters . One day I conform to nine . ”
Thanks to the foresightfulness and determination of mid-19th century Chicagoans , the city hadone of the firstcomprehensive stormwater and wastewater systems in the country . But it come up at a Mary Leontyne Price : Sewage before long poured into Lake Michigan , polluting the metropolis ’s source of drunkenness pee . That eventually guide to the reversal of the Chicago River in 1900 , yet another monolithic infrastructure project designed allow as many human as potential to wad into the city . [ Chicago Tribune , WBEZ , Chicago Magazine ]
Top ikon : The raising of Lake Street . Edward Mendel / Chicago Historical Society
CitiesInfrastructureSewageurbanism
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