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Nineteenth-century public health officials, physicians and engineers understood the need to control the water supply and wastewater disposal in Chicago.
It was believed that proper sanitation and a better water supply would protect city residents from epidemic outbreaks, such as cholera, typhoid and polio.
In an effort to improve sanitation, and navigation in Chicago, the Sanitary and Ship Canal was constructed between the South Branch of the Chicago River and Lockport, a distance of 28 miles.
On May 8, 1899, the secretary of war, R. A. Alger, issued the permit that authorized the Sanitary District to open the Main Channel of the Sanitary Ship Canal. The Sanitary District quietly, and with no ceremony, turned water into the Main Chanel of the canal on Jan. 2, 1900.
There was a rush to divert the water in the canal shortly after completion, as the city of St. Louis felt the Sanitary District’s plan to pump water into the new canal might pose a threat to the Mississippi River water supply and many feared a federal injunction might delay the project.
A more formal opening took place two weeks later on Jan. 17, when the Lockport Dam was opened at the southern end of the canal.
On Jan. 20, 1900, an opening day celebration was held, and the first boat, the Juliet, shown in the top photograph, traveled along the new open waterway.
The Sanitary District began planning for the Calumet-Sag Channel in 1907. This new channel would connect the Sanitary and Ship Canal with the Calumet River and create yet another outlet for water to drain and flow from Lake Michigan into the system by reversing the flow of the Calumet River.
After a bit of legal wrangling, a permit was issued and ground was broken in 1911 and the new channel was completed by 1922.
The construction of the Cal-Sag Channel, and the dredging of the Little Calumet River, attracted a diversity of individuals to the region, as shown in the bottom photograph, including Irish, Swedish, Dutch, German and African American. As a result, the surrounding towns and villages such as Dolton, Riverdale, Robbins and Worth flourished as new industry followed the flow of workers to the area.