June 11, 1861 – An editorial in the Chicago Tribune once again screams at
the foulness of the Chicago River . . . “Cross the river at nightfall and see
what an odor of nastiness prevails there.
It will breed a pestilence, this huge, filthy ditch, which reeks with
the garbage of distilleries and slaughter houses, sewers, and cesspools, and
the odorous refuse of the Gas Company.
We do not remember to have ever before seen it as abominably unclean as
now. The hot season is at hand. What shall be done? The question is an easy one to answer. Set the big pumps at Bridgeport at work, and
in twenty-four hours time, fresh, pure water from the lake will take the place
of this infamous broth concocted of all uncleanness and pent under the very
nostrils of our citizens. Let the river
be pumped out; it is high time.” [Chicago Tribune, June 11, 1861] It would be another 39 years before the river
would be “pumped out” with the opening of the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal,
but this piece does show that the idea for reversing the river had been under
consideration for decades before the 1900 completion of the Chicago Sanitary
and Ship Canal.
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