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| David M Laz posted I & M Canal Lock at Bridgeport looking north 5/2/1914 Illinois and Michigan Canal Photo Tour posted Stone fills the banks of the canal in this undated photo. I would think this is at Chicago, but the lock puzzles me. The Bridgeport lock was removed in 1871, I think this image is from later. If not , this would date from the late 1860's. Christopher N. Kaufmann: For nearly 10 years Chicago was considering ways to build additional canals for disposal of sewage from the rapidly growing population and more shipping routes for ships too large for the I&M canal. In addition, there were waterborn cholera and typhoid outbreaks as a consequence of sewage from the canal going into Lake Michigan, where drinking water intakes are. By 1869 they decided to deepen the I&M canal and that was completed on April 26, 1871 with a big celebration. This reversed the flow of the Chicago River to the Illinois River. But, heavy storms pushed the water back to Lake Michigan. See attached newspaper article. As to why they left the northernmost summit lock in place at Bridgeport the only way to find out is from the annual Canal Commissioner reports, most of which are at the Chicago History Museum. In the 1890s Chicago had a permanent solution to the crowded shipping and waste water management—the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, completed 1900. https://www.newspapers.com/.../chicago-tribune.../126876006/ |
This must be looking more towards the northeast than north. Notice all of the coal soot in the atmosphere. Imagine what it was like closer to downtown, which was surrounded on three sides by railroad yards. This illustrates why there was a smoke abatement report in 1915. I also note a gasometer south of the canal. I-55 has wiped out any trace of this 1914 scene.
I was surprised that by 1938 there were four gasometers in this area. The smaller one in the lower-left corner is probably the one in the 1914 photo. By 1938 the I&M Canal had been replaced by railroads and the Sanitary and Ship Canal. Even though you can see remnants of the canal downstream (below), the canal origin in Bridgeport had been filled in to create the Chicago Produce Terminal.
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| 1938 Aerial Photo from ILHAP |
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| 1938 Aerial Photo from ILHAP Note the bridges still left near the bottom and the pool of water still standing between the Western Avenue bridges. |
So I go back to the maps in the 1915 report. I included more of p. 349 then I needed to study the lock because I noticed how the slips on the south side of the river match current satellite maps. So some things have not changed in over a century.
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| 1915, p. 349 |
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| 1915, p. 348 |
The lock would have been in the channel on p. 349 that slants up to the turning basin. I know there used to be a pumping station to feed water from the river into the canal. I assume that is what the little channel that goes to the South Fork was for.
In the 1938 photo, you can still see the feeder channel as a notch on the east side of Ashland Avenue because they did not bother to fill in that part. You can also see a little notch for the main channel as well.
If you look at the gate in the top picture, you will see it open towards you. That means it opens away from the river and towards the canal because the water level of the canal was eight feet above the level of the river.
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| 1938 Aerial Photo from ILHAP |
If you look at the gate in the top picture, you will see it open towards you. That means it opens away from the river and towards the canal because the water level of the canal was eight feet above the level of the river.
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| Paul Petraitis posted I&M Canal lock, b 1848, photographed probably in the 1880's... West of Bridgeport I'm guessing |
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| MWRD posted Inspection of the west gate of the Illinois and Michigan (I&M) Canal lock near Ashland Avenue in the Bridgeport neighborhood of Chicago on May 2, 1914. In the years after the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal was completed, the I&M Canal became obsolete with shallow, stagnant water that was only suitable for small boats. Eventually, Interstate 55 was built on the canal right-of-way between Bridgeport and Summit. MWRD posted MWRD posted on Sep 9, 2022 Illinois and Michigan Canal Photo Tour posted MWRD posted |
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| Hew Niendorf posted Looking at an 1849 map and I never noticed this island around Bridgeport. Anyone know anything about it? Hew Niendorf shared |
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| Dennis DeBruler commented on Hew's share When built, the canal was 8' higher than the river. The upper channel had a lock and the lower channel was fed by a pump house. In fact, I think this map shows the lock and pump house. MWRD posted this photo with the comment: "Inspection of the west gate of the Illinois and Michigan (I&M) Canal lock near Ashland Avenue in the Bridgeport neighborhood of Chicago on May 2, 1914. In the years after the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal was completed, the I&M Canal became obsolete with shallow, stagnant water that was only suitable for small boats. Eventually, Interstate 55 was built on the canal right-of-way between Bridgeport and Summit." Hew Niendorf: I'm struck by how poor the lock looks here. Must be a result of the obsolescence of the canal by that time? Dennis DeBruler: Hew Niendorf Actually, I don't even know why the gates are still shut in 1914. In 1871 they cut through the 8' elevation of the canal in an attempt to reverse the flow of the river. But the canal did not have enough flow to make a difference in the stench of the river. Then in 1907 (or 1910, depending on the source), the Sanitation District extended the 1900 drainage canal and built a powerhouse and 40' (or 38' or 41') lift lock at the end of the extension. When built, that lock had the highest lift in the world. That lock still exists next to the newer Illinois Waterway lock. https://www.google.com/maps/@41.5431235,-88.0847868,2890m/data=!3m1!1e3 So the I&M Canal north of Joliet should have become obsolete when that 40' lock opened. There were companies along the I&M Canal in that stretch. Maybe they had to keep it operational to support them. |
The resolution of this 1855 map is not very good, but it is good enough to show that Bridgeport started as its own town.
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| Historic Chicago posted |
The situation seems to have been quite complicated at Bridgeport after doing some research on this. The original lock was a lift lock since they apparently needed to get over the "hump" at the subcontinental divide. The minimum depth of the canal seems to have been set at the same level as Lake Michigan; it's all they had money for at the time. This first setup - including the pump(s) to feed the canal - were located east of Ashland.
ReplyDeleteWhen the canal was finally deepened in 1871 to allow for gravity flow from Lake Michigan, the lock and pump(s) were removed as they'd become obstacles. For reasons I'm still not sure of, but what sources say was the fouling of the downriver communities, the state legislature forced the canal commission to reinstall a lock and pumps in 1881 which were completed in 1883. That's what I believe we're seeing in the photos at the top and bottom of this post. These were located west of Ashland, this time. Though, by that time, it's hard to tell that there was a lift lock (north side of the canal) next ot a guard lock to the south of it, which was essentially a single set of doors.
The link I'll provide says this about the later setup, and I don't quite understand it
"During the dry season water was pumped out of the South Fork into a supply channel (the southern leg above), while the "backward" lock of the main channel kept the water from flowing back into the river. During high water season or during heavy rain, the lock was simply thrown open and the water flowed by its own weight."
http://lockzero.org.uic.edu/3image/Lock.html
I guess this is simplying that even after the "deep cut" of 1871 through the summit that the canal did not always flow away from the city by gravity?
BTW, the 1848 shot is almost assuredly of Lock #1 (or #2) in/around Lockport, which was unrelated to the two "summit locks" i.e. the one in Bridgeport and then the one north of Lockport whose location is not exactly known, today.
Looks like the link in the comment above is dead. Anyway, here is a piece detailing the works at Bridgeport called "Chicago: Marsh to Metropolis" with the relevant map being on page 20:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.dicklanyon.com/post/chicago-marsh-to-metropolis
I'd know about there being two locks at two different times at the head of the canal. But apparently, there was one in operation between 1900 and 1907, which is what must be pictured in the 20th century photos in the blog post, above. However, these are not talked about in the actual document from what I can find. It'd be interesting to see if someone can find documentation on this iteration of the lock.
In any case, it's kind of funny to see that the canal commissioners wasted all that money deepening the I&M so that it could be feed directly by the lake, only to be told a decade after to seal it back up and feed it by expensive pumping works, again, after they'd already sold off the previous ones.
Another interesting thing I'm reading and learning about is why the I&M simply didn't allow the Sanitary District to expand the canal. And as with all things, it seems to have been over egos.
Oh, as to why you still see at least parts of the I&M maintained - well, maintained to the bare minimum - well after the Chicago Sanitary & Ship Canal was completed was before the canal was still connected to local drainage ditches, particularly leading from the Calumet area.
DeleteThough, what I'm still a bit confused about is where the Cal-Sag Channel cut through the I&M to meet with the CS&SC, there were cuts in the walls of the Cal-Sag to allow the I&M to outlet into it. Perhaps it was preferable to have any drainage come in through one spot, though that doesn't strike me as preferable, especially during flood flows. That bring a whole lot of sediment and water down to this outlet and into the Cal-Sag channel's outlet to the CS&SC. Maybe, these two larger waterways had more than enough capacity for local drainage and lake diversion waters.
I guess maintaining the lock doors, too, at Bridgeport offered them some minimal control to keep the drainage from entering the CS&SC at that specific location forcing drainage down to outlet at Lemont and the Cal-Sag.