Water Works III

Water Works III
Life Span: 1874-1960
Location:

Lakeside Annual Directory of the City of Chicago, 1880
Chicago Water Works, Chicago av. ne. cor. Pine and S. Ashland av. near W. 22d

Lakeside Annual Directory of the City of Chicago, 1885
Chicago Waterworks, Chicago av. ne. cor. Pine and S. Ashland av. near W. 22d

The Land Owner, November, 1873

Never satisfied until it has exhausted every resource of information and instruction for its readers, The Land Owner lays before them in this number a complete series of illustrations of the system of tunnels begun in 1864 and now rapidly approaching final completion, which supply this great city with the pure and refreshing waters of Lake Michigan. Our artist, never wearying with studies of the grand and curious, has been for weeks engaged in visiting the bowels of the earth, where, under several parts of the city, gangs of men are at work night and day in making excavations, in going down into the aqueous depths of the shaft at the lake crib, and in elimbing to the lantern of the water tower on the shore.

The Old Tunnel.
In this connection, and before describing the new tunnels now in process of excavation, it will be interesting to go back to the origin of the system and speak about the early struggles of the city to obtain pure water.

Ground was first broken for the Lake Tunnel, March 17th,
1864. The various causes which led to the undertaking of this gigantic work, and compelled such an enormous expenditure on the part of the city, may be briefly stated.

Since Chicago became a city, its great want had been an abundant supply of water. This want become more and more pressing as the city increased from a mere handful of settlers to the teeming mart of the Western World. Unlike most other cities, and especially those of the East, the surroundings of the Garden City were no more elevated than the place where the city itself stood, and no flow of water could be secured from any direction what-ever. Indeed, the Chicago river the possessed no current, being in fact, a bayou setting back from
the lake, its source on a precise dead level with its mouth.

The astonishing growth of the city, unparalled in the history of the world, its increasing commerce and trade, combined to render the currentless river a cesspool of filth. Miles of sewerage were constructed, which discharge their foul contents into its turbid waters. Hundreds of steam tugs and lake craft plowed its surface, and the refuse and offal from numberless slaughter houses and packing establishments in the vicinity of Bridge-

Scientific American May 7, 1881

THE CHICAGO WATERWORKS.
The city of Chicago is justly noted for its business activity, its bold enterprises, its live way of doing things generally; and the history of the city water supply system, from its comparatively small beginning to its latest development, is cbaracteristic of the progressive spirit that pervades the great Northwest. Lying, as the city does, on a flat prairie with no natural elevation upon which to place a reservoir to insure a proper distribution of the water, and with no desible near source of supply, the engineers encountered exceptional difficulties in planning and executing the working insufficient, further improvements were instituted, inving a tunnel extending two miles into Lake Michigan. An accident having occurred which cut off the supply of water for a time, rendering a large area liable to the dangers of an uncombated conflagration, steps were taken to provide a water supply of such character and exteut as to render the possibility of even a temporary interruption very remote if not impossible. The first water works in Chicago were commenced in 1851, when the population of the city was about 35,000.

It was then thought that the small quantity of water discharged from the river would not affect the quality of the water in the lake at a point 1½, miles south. The works were put in operation in February. 1854, and consisted of one reservoir, containing about a half million of gallons, and eight and three·quarters miles of iron pipe, beside the pumping engine. The population at this time had increased to about seventy thousand, and the growth of the city, together with the introduction of sewerage and the establishment of packing houses, distilleries, etc., increased the quantity of filth flowing into the lake to such an extent that complaints of the impurity and offensiveness of the water were frequently made, and it was proposed to extend an iron pipe, five feet in diameter, one mile out into the lake, to obtain a supply beyond the effect of the sewage. Various other experiments were discnssed, but it was finally decided to extend a tunnel two miles into the lake. The work was commenced May 26, 1864, and the tunnel with all of its appurtenances was completed in March, 1867. In this tunnel provision was made for extension either lakeward or landward without interrupting the supply through it, except for a very short time; but it was not supposed that an extension wauld he required for many years. The breakage of a siphon under Chicago Avenue Bridge, August 18, 1869 deprived the west division of the city of w ater for about sixty hours greatly endangering a large portion of the city.

This circumstance led the City Council to direct the Board of Public Works to take immediate action with reference to the wants of tbe city in this respect.

North Side Waterworks and Pumping Engine Room.

It was decided to build a new tunnel, seven feet in diameter, parallel with the old one, extending six miles into the lake. This great work was commenced July 12, 1872, and finished July 7, 1874. Great difficulty was experienced in sinking both shore and crib shafts, but the work was finally accomplished in the most satisfactory manner. In the construction of the new tunnel, as in the old provision was made for extending it lakeward should sewage contaminations hereafter make it necessary or desirable.

The crib is a substantial structure of solid masonry, the three lower courses of which are built of granite, on account of its superior frost resisting qualities. The upper courses are of limestone, the arches are of brick, the filling of rubber, and the deck is composed of ordinary concrete, on the top of which is placed a layer of asphalt concrete. The light-h ouse tower is of brick, w ith an iron stairway. Upon the deck is built a brick house, in which the family of the person in care of the crib resides. No more desolate and isolated place of residence could be illlagined than this is in winter. One might as well be on a desert island as far as human companionship is concerned, although there is a telephone line to the shore. But there are many days when the storms blow and the waves beat in their fury , and the broken, floating ice dashes against its sides, that no one goes out from the shore. It is said that some of those who have lived at the crib have found the isolation so iutolerable as to almost drive them insane. In the summer, however, boats constantly ply between the shore and the crib, carrying visitors, it being a favorite resort for boating and sailing parties.

Since the completion of the tunnel the immense growth of the city has so increased the sewerage flowing into the lake that it is believed that at times it extends as far as the crib and contaminates the water. Many plans have been suggested to remedy this, and on all hands it is confessed that the problem is a very grave one. It is probable that in ten years from now, with the present rate of increase, Chicago will have a million of inhabitants, and in that case no tunnel extending directly into the lake could insure pure water. The latest suggestion for procuring pure water for the city is that of Chicago’s eminent architect, Mr. W. W. Boyington, who proposes that the city shall purchase 100 acres of !and in Highlands, some 20 miles north of the city, where the ground is 130 feet higher than tbe city level. Here should be built an immense reservoir, into which water should be pumped from the lake, and thence conducted by a viaduct to the city.

The shore end of the tunnel is connected with the new North Side pumping works shown in our engraving, and extends to the West Side works. The building is a model of architectural beauty. Its style is castellated, and the tall water tower gives It a very imposing appearance.

Left:

Right:

The building contains four large pumping engines, two of which are in continual use, while the other two are held in reserve. The general appearance of these magnificent machines is seen in the upper view in the large engraving, the last one erected being shown in the foreground. This is a double engine, having a capacity of 36,000,000 gallons in twenty-four bours. The steam cylinder is 70 inches in diameter, stroke 10 feet. The working beams are each 28 feet long and weigh 20 tons. The fly wheel is 26 feet in diameter and weighs 40 tons.

The first engine was erected at these works in 1853. It had a capacity 7,500,000 gallons in twenty·four hours. The second engine, erected in 1857, had a capacity of 13, 000,000 gallons in twenty-four hours, and the third had a capacity of 18,000,000 gallons daily. The first and second engines were single, the third and fourth double. These engines are supplied with steam from five boilers 12 feet in diameter and 20 feet long.

In 1871 Chicago had 271 miles of pipe, now it has 500 miles, and it has over 3,000 fire hydrants. This extensive system of water supply has been perfected at an expense of about $8,000,000.

Chicago Tribune, July 9, 1874

The Board of Public Works wore engaged yesterday in preparing the advertisement for the two engines to be used in the new West Side Water-Works, whose capacity is to be 15,000,000 gallons a day each. The advertisement will be published on Friday (right).

The Tunnels and Water System of Chicago Under the Lake and Under the River, J. M. Wing, 1874

The first and second lake tunnels, as described in the fore going chapters, bring the water of the lake to the shore, at the present pumping works, an illustration of which accompanies this volume. From this point the water passed by the first tunnel has been distributed over the city through a system of mains and pipes, as in other cities, the force or head being obtained from the stand pipe into which it was lifted by means of the powerful engines. But so rapidly did the city expand in every direction, that it soon became apparent that this system of street supply was becoming inadequate. In order to overcome a lack of water supply in sections of the city lying remote from the present Water Works, it was decided to excavate a tunnel under the city, until it reached a point on the South Branch near its intersection with Twenty-second street, where the city had puchased a large lot of S. J. Walker,Esq. Here the auxiliary Pumping Works are to be erected, as seen on the diagram, and from this point the great West Side will be mainly supplied with its water in the future.

This tunnel is, in effect, a monster main, extending under the entire city, of a size and capacity never before dreamed of by any municipality.

The contractors are Messrs. Cox Brothers, who, as this volume is in press, are vigorously prosecuting the work. Our illustration of the shaft at Illinois street pertains to this tunnel.

A good many incidents might be enumerated in connection with the work on this new tunnel, but the experience of the miners and contractors has been substantially that narrated in preceding chapters, as occurring in the original work.

The cost of this”bore”cannot at this time be definitely stated, but it will not fall far short of a million dollars, including the building and engines at the new works. This tunnel, it is expected, will complete, for many years at least, the water system of Chicago. To say that it will be the most unique and perfect system in the world, will be only to corroborate the opinions of all scientific men on the subject.

The Land Owner, November, 1873

Our Water-Tunnels—Sectional View Showing The Entire Water System Of Chicago, From The Lake To The New Pumping Works, Corner Of Twenty-Second Street And Blue Island Avenue.

Chicago Tribune, August 1, 1875

THE NEW LAKE TUNNEL
The second lake tunnel han boen satisfsctorily completed. On the 7th of last July, a party of city officials, prominent residents, and visitors from abroad, were afforded, through the courtesy of the contractors, Messrs. Steele & McMahon, the novel pleasure of a trip through the tunnel to the crib. The land tunnel connecting the new lake tunnel with the West Side water-works has also been completed, and the water has been already turned in, so as to make it available for use in case of fire. The capacity of the new lake tunnel is 100,000,000 gallons; that of the old tunnel is 50,000,000 gallons. The cost of the old lake tunnel was $457,844.95; of the new lake tunnel, $411.510.16; and of the land extension of the latter, about $515,000.

The New Pumping Works.
The West-Side pumping works are to be erected on Ashland avenue and Twenty-second street. On Oct, 26, 1874, the contract was awarded to Messrs. Murphy & Co., Quintard Iron Works, New York, for two compound, condensing, beam-pumping engines, at a cost of $243,500, which are to be capable of raising 30,000,000 U. S. gallons 165 feet high in twenty-four hours. The duty required is 90,000,000 pounds of water rained 1 foot high with 100 pounds of coal. The engines are to be completed in November, by which time the building will be ready for their reception.

The Crib.
The crib was completed during the past year, in accordance with the original plan, and the structure 1s staunch and enduring. Having successfully withstood the extraordinary pressure of ice which the unusual severity of last winter caused to surround it, no fears need to be entertained for its future safety,

An application was made to the United States Lighthouse Department to place a third order Fresnel light in the tower, for tho benefit of navigation, and the department, anxious to comply with the request, wil place the light in position as soon aa the requisite legislation can be secured, a special act of Congress. being necessary, as the Board declined to cede the jurisdiction required by the general law regulating lighthouses.

During the coming year a large fog-bell will be placed in the crib, which, in addition to the light, will enhance the usefulness of the crib for our lake commerce.

Telegraphic cables have been laid between the pumping works and the crib, through the new lake tunnel, which will insure prompt communication at all times.

The following table exhibits the quantity and coat of paces laid since 1801, including the coat of ave river tunnels for carrying water maias to consect the three divisions of the city:

The average cost of pipe for the year was $50.27 per ton.

Fire Hydrants.
A large portion of the appropriation for water pipe is spent in constructing hydrants and their connections on the line of the new pipe. In addition to the requirements of the new lines of pipe, there is a constant demand for the replacing of small hydrants, constructed years ago, in settlements which, in the meantime, have grown so important and become so thickly settled as to need additional protection. This expenditure, therefore, consumes a large percentage of the fund which is supposed to be spent exclusively in laying pipe, and makes the cost of pipe appear much greater than it really is. As the fire hydrants are not a part of the water service proper, but in reality a part of the fire service, and for the use of the Fire Department, it world seem that their cost should be providded for in a separate appropriation, charged to that Department, as is the case in nearly every other city in the country

Harper’s Weekly Magazine, October 20, 1883

West Side Water Works

Chicago Tribune, December 29, 1907

Great System to Provide Belter Water.
Of all the tunnels, the one styled the “southwest land tunnel” is the most extensive, This tunnel will extend from One Hundred and Fourth street and Stewart avenue east to State, north to Seventy-third street, thence east to the lake shore, and under the lake to the Sixty-eighth street crib. Another spur will extend from Seventy-third street and State to Western avenue. The new pumping station at Stewart avenue and One Hundred and Fourth street will cost $800,000. A similar station will be erected at Western avenue and Seventy-fifth street.

The tunnel extending from Chicago avenue water works to the west side pumping station at Ashland avenue and Twenty-second street will be rebuilt. Instead of going under private property, which makes the cost of maintenance enormous because of the changes in location required every time a foundation for a skyscraper is put in, the new tunnel will take a route west in Chicago avenue to Dearborn avenue, south in Dearborn avenue to Indiana street, west in Indiana to Halsted, south in Halsted to Blue Island avenue, and thence following the course of Blue Island avenue to the pumping station. The three tunnels going out into the lake from the foot of Chicago avenue will be extended to the Carter Harrison crib, and the old Chicago avenue crib will be abandoned. This change not only will give the city a purer water supply. but it will also greatly reduce the cost of maintaining the water department.

Chicago Tribune, September 6, 1908

Water Funds Are Misused.
It is charged that the west side pumping station, valued at $1,500,000, was leased to the Forest City company at an inadequate rental, and that land adjoining was purchased at a cost of $68,000 out of the waterworks funds, and now is being used by the railway company

Of the organization of the Municipal Traction company, it is charged that the original directors of the company were selected by the mayor, and that they were at the time of their election mere tools and puppets of the mayor.

It is alleged that these original incorporators and directors had no personal interest in the company, and though pretending to subscribe $10,000 of the capital stock of the company. not one of them was the real owner of a single share of the stock.

Charges Fraud in Grant.
It is charged that, prior to April 27, last, when the security grant was passed by the city council, the Municipal Traction company and Forest City railway company were creditors and depositors in the Depositors Savings and Trust company; of which Johnson was president. and Vice Mayor Lapp and Councilmen Zinner, Hanratty, and Henry, stockholders.

It is charged that these four knew that if the Forest City property was sold to the Cleveland railway company and the property of the latter leased to the Municipal Traction company, the stock of Johnson, Lapp, Zinner, Hanratty, and Henry would be made more valuable and they would be flnancially bene-fitted.

1904 Chicago Public Works Annual Report

On July 12, 1872, in accordance with the recommendations made by the Board of Public Works in 1869, work was commenced on a second lake tunnel, extending from the existing crib to Chicago avenue station, and extending from that point across town to the present pumping station at 22nd street and Ash land avenue . The lake section is parallel with and 46 feet south of the first tunnel. Its diameter is 7 feet. The reasons for connecting with the old pumping station were as follows : 1st, To relieve the oldest pumps, the lift of which at times reached the limit, on account of the loss of head in the old tunnel, and to the increased pumpage. 2d. The saving in cost of pumpage by rais ing the water in the pump well. 3d, The great advantage of having two tun nels in case either one should need repairs or cleaning.

This lake tunnel was completed July 7, 1874, and the work on the land extension under another contract was commenced in July, 1873, and completed October 12, 1874. Its length, including the land extension, is 31,490 feet. The estimated velocity, when supplying 100,000,000 gallons per day, was 4 feet per second. The total cost approximated $1,000,000.

Meanwhile work was commenced on the new pumping station at Twenty second street and Ashland avenue, designed to accommodate two new engines, and arranged to allow an addition to provide for additional engines in the future. The engine and boiler-house is built of brick, faced with pressed brick and stone trimmings on the front. The engine-room is 100 feet by 66 feet, and the boiler-house 100 feet by 40 feet. The chimney is 125 feet high. The tower is 190 feet high from ground to top of masonry. The inside of the tower is cylindrical and 12 feet in diameter. The standpipe inside the tower is 5 feet diameter, 167 feet high, connected originally to the discharge main from the engine with a 30-inch branch pipe on the west side of the tower, and with pro vision for a similar connection on the east side.

The foundations for the engines included a weir well, supply well and dry well. The weir well is semicircular in form, 26 feet in diameter. The land tunnel is connected with this well by a branch tunnel 7 feet in diameter. The supply well is 44 feet long by 10 feet wide, and separated from the weir well by a brick wall, at the bottom of what is a gate 5 feet by 3 feet (operated from the basement floor of the building) to admit water to the supply well. The foundations are built of large sized blocks of stones. The south part and the walls are built on the rock, which is 44½ feet below the surface of the ground. The north part of the foundations is built on blue clay, 29½ feet below ground. The foundations of the buildings are on piles except the west wall of the engine-room, which is built on the wall of the wells, and the south wall, which, being temporary, was built on a foundation a few feet below the surface of the ground.

The contract for two compound condensing beam engines was let in 1875 to the Quintard Iron Works of New York. The general specifications for these engines provided that “each engine shall be capable of raising 15,000,000 U. S. gallons 155 feet high in twenty-four hours with a steam pressure on the boilers of 60 pounds per square inch, and develop a duty of 90,000,000 foot pounds based on 100 pounds anthracite coal.” The boilers were to be three in number, any two to furnish the required steam.

The engines were first put into operation November 6, 1876, thus increasing the pumping capacity of the water works to 104,000,000 gallons. They are so arranged that they can be operated together or separately, connection being made by a cast iron coupling. The high-pressure cylinders are 48 inches in diameter, with a stroke of 6 feet. The low-pressure cylinders are 76 inches in diameter, with a stroke of 10 feet. Each walking beam is composed of two wrought iron plates 2½ inches thick, 36 feet long between centers of end pins and 7 feet deep at center . The plates are secured 15 inches apart by cast iron sockets and bolts running through and through. The beam pillow blocks are supported on two cast iron columns with four diagonal brace columns. Each fly-wheel is of cast iron, 32 feet diameter, weighing 60 tons. The con denser is placed below the bed plate, with the air pump inside the condenser, the hot well being in upper end of the condenser castings. The air pump is 38 inches in diameter and has 4½ feet stroke. Direct acting bucket and plunger water pumps are underneath the low-pressure steam cylinders and connected with them by bolts and columns. The plungers are 36 inches diameter, with a 10-foot stroke. The pump chambers are 51 inches in diameter. The pumps are placed in the dry well. The suction nozzle is 3 feet in diameter and con nects with the supply well. The delivery nozzle from each engine is 30 inches in diameter. The air chambers placed immediately behind the pumps are 16 feet high by 5 feet diameter. With the engines were installed six horizontal return tubular boilers, each 6½ feet diameter, 17 feet long, with eighty tubes 4 inches in diameter. The boilers are set up in pairs, and are supplied with water by independent steam pumps connected with hot wells, supply well and water mains. A formal duty and capacity test of the new engines was made in Janu ary, 1877, in accordance with the requirements of the specifications, with the result that the west engine developed a duty of 99,083,000 foot pounds with a capacity of 16,160,470 gallons in twenty-four hours. The east engine showed a duty of 96,066,800 foot pounds with a capacity of 15,571,970 gallons.

It might be interesting to note at this point that the average daily consumption of water during 1876 was 41,931,481 gallons. This, based on the population of 407,000, shows a daily consumption per capita of 106 gallons. The total number of miles of mains was 416.4, the number of house services or taps was 57,130, and the water revenue was $831,555. Number of hydrants, 2,901; stop valves, 2,590, and meters, 1,446. Total cost of water works, $8,179,158. The area of the City through successive extensions had increased to 36.66 square miles.

Chicago Tribune, December 19, 1909

Have you ever thought of the history of the glass of water you draw from a faucet? Of the original source of the water, of the course it travels to reach us, of the engineering difficulties and the cost?

Because of a highly efficient water supply system it is such an easy ratter to obtain it that we easily acquire the habit of taking its supply for granted, without thinking. like the air we breathe.

It is a simple matter for the individual citizen to turn on the water and use as much as he needs without limit, but it is quite a different and difficult matter for the city engineer, acting for the great body of citizens, to provide water for over 2,000,000 people, as much of it as they want, every hour of the twenty-four, and to distribute it over an area of 196 square miles.

When you turn the faucet to draw water you make connection with an immense system of water mains, pumping stations, and water tunnels, the total approximate cost of which is estimated at $50,000,000. Thou sands of other people, probably hundreds of thou-sands. are being supplied at the same time.

From the Lake to the Cup.
The travels of the eupful of water drawn at the faucet might be shown by an imaginary motion picture. The water enters one of the intake cribs placed deep in the lake at distances from two to four miles from shore. The care of the cribs requires a cret of from five to twenty men, including the keeper, helpers, and deep sea divers. They keep the port holes, fish screens, shaft gates, wells, and shafts in constant running order. and fight off foreign matter and the continually forming ice during the winter months. The city tug service keeps them in touch with the world on shore.

The water passes through the port holes of the crib into a big well and down through a cylinder or shaft, varying from six to fourteen feet in diameter. to the water tunnel below the bed of the lake, in some instances fifty feet, and others 160 feet, below water level. The tunnels, varying from six feet to fourteen feet inside diameter, carrying the water to wells under the pumping stations at various locations on shore. Powerful pumping engines, those in the larger stations having a capacity of 40,000,000 gallons every twenty-four hours, pump the water up through the shaft from the large well below and force it through the distributing mains to the various sections of the city and it finally arrives at your faucet.

Each station has its chief engineer, machinists and helpers, and huudreds of men are laboring on the water pipe mains, operating them and repairing and extending them. There are about 2,300 miles of water mains. Placed in line, they would nearly reach from Chicago to San Francisco. According to available statistics, it is probably the most extensive system of water pipes and mains in the world.

Water Supply Always Most Important.
Water is indispensable. It is of more primary importance to life than food. It is necessary to public health and cleanliness. A community might do without light, fire protection, transportation, or any other public service, if necessary, but an adequate water supply is absolutely necessary to human as well as municipal existence. Springs, wells, lakes, and rivers have always been from the times of the ancients the principal sources of water supply. Obtaining water from wells was probably the earliest method.

Before the beginning of the Christian era the Chinese dug wells 1,500 feet deep, employing practically the same methods now in vogue. The Romans found that the polluted waters of the Tiber caused disease and death high above the normal rate, and, in their solution of the question, became the greatest builders in the world of water tunnels and aqueducts. Their aqueducts are unsurpassed even today as feats of construction and engineering. They brought pure water from mountain rivers fifty to ane hundred miles away. One aqueduct, built in the first century, still brings water to Rome from the original source (Marcia). ‘They built the Pont du Gard, near Nimes, France, one of the notable aqueducts of the world.

The conduit is carried across a valley about 400 feet wide, supported by three tiers of beautifully proportioned arches, 181 feet high. It is still in use. Another noteworthy Roman aquaduct, still in use, is at Metz, France.

Paris, also, found it necessary to go back to nature, far from cities and civilization, to obtain pure water. That city has two aqueducts, one 81 and the other 108 miles long. The water is use entirely for domestic purposes; filtered water being used for fire, streets, fountains, and other public service. London obtains most of its supply from wells in the chalk hills and filtered river water. Supply service covering only certain hours of the day was at first established and still exists in many of the districts.

New Aqueduct Tremendous Work.
New York carries water for thirty miles from the Croton dam, and to meet the increasing demand has a tremendous proposition, from an engineering and financial point of view, in building the Catskill aqueduct, which will have a capacity of 500,000,000 gallons every twenty-four hours, to bring water from the Catskill mountains. The Los Angeles aqueduct, bringing water from the mountains 200 miles away, is a work that is commanding world wide attention.

Considering the difficult problems encountered by. other cities that must bring water from great distances at’ enormous expense, Chicagoans have cause to rejoice and be glad. Situated upon the shores of a large body of fresh water, furnishing an inexhaustible supply at its doors. Chicago stands alone among the largest cities of the world in the superiority of its natural advantages.

The town of Chiego was incorporated in 1834 with 330 inhabitants. The city of Chicago was incorporated in 1837. At that time the water supply was obtained from wells, the Chicago river, and Lake Michigan. If in those days water from wells had been distributed in oriental fashion by beautiful maidens carrying earthen jars it might be picturesque and romantic to live them over again. But Chicago methods were far from being those of the picturesque, orient. Four-fifths of the town was supplied by the cart system, operated by private capital. Water was peddled about and, sold by measure, after the milk wagon method of distribution. The territory was easily covered, for the boundaries of the original city were Lake Michigan on the east, Center avenue to La Salle and North avenue on the north, Wood street on the west, and Twenty-second street on the south.

System Starts from Single Well.
The first public undertaking for water supply by the city of which there is record was a contract awarded by the city council for the building of a well at Cass street and Michigan avenue for $95.50. From that modest beginning the water supply system of Chicago has been enlarged, improved, and extended until the total original cost of the various departments of the system was estimated on Dee. 31, 1908, at $49.446.780, and the area of distribution at 196 square miles. It is interesting to note that the appraised value of the properties on that date was $14.563.709, showing that the water works property is on a substantial basis.

There are ten pumping stations, with thirty-four pumping engines and eighty boilers, thirty-seven miles of tunnels and five intake cribs. In the system of water mains there are 2.189 miles of water pipe, 18,782 valves, 22,692 fire hydrants. and 372,835 taps. The total expenditures for operating the system in 1908 were approximately $2,700,000. The total pumping capacity of all the plants amounts to 650,600,000 gallons every twenty-four hours and the average daily pumpage 467,772,000 gallons. Based upon an assumed population of 2,300,000, this supply averages 204 gallons every twenty-four hours per capita.

Municipal ownership and the history of Chicago’s water supply system began in 1851, when the city took over the rights and franchise of the Chicago Hydraulie company, a private corporation that up to that time had furnished most of the water supply.

The unparalleled rapidity of Chicago’s growth in area and population has given the water supply department many difficult engineering and financial prob-lems. It often seemed almost impossible to keep pace with the constantly mereasing population and necessity for more water. New pumps of greater capacity were put into old pumping stations, new stations were erected, and new water tunnels were constructed in a worthy endeavor to meet the demands. But in the few years of time needed to complete the improvements the population increased beyond expectations, and the city found itself face to face with the same old problem of providing more water.

First Station Built in 1853.
In 1853 the first pumping station erected by the city of Chicago was begun at the foot of Chicago avenue, near the lake, ‘known as the North pumping station. A wooden pipe, thirty inches in diameter, running 600 feet into the lake, supplied the water. There were about two miles of wooden distributing mains.

Additions to the city were made in 1853, 1863, and 1869, and although the capacity of the pumping station was increased it was necessary in 1869 to build the West station, on Ashland avenue near Twenty-second street, obtaining water from the first crib. The eity continued to grow rapidly, north, south, and west, and the water supply was soon inadequate. The Harrison street station, at Harrison street, near Des. plaines, was put into service in 1890, and the Fourteenth street station. at Fourteenth street and Indiana avenue, in 1891. The Four Mile crib was built out in the lake from Fourteenth street to supply these stations.

A memorable addition to the city of Chicago was made in 1889, when the city of Lake Vlew and the towns of: Hyde Park, Lake, and Jefferson were an-nexed, adding 126 square miles to its area and giving the city a frontage on Lake Michigan of twenty-two miles. These towns already had water supply systems, and after annexation plans were made and executed to combine them and distribute from the Hyde Park station at Sixty-eighth street. Water for these systems was obtained in 1885 through iron pipes extend-ing 1,000 feet out into the lake, and from 1885 to 1894 through a tunnel terminating in a submerged crib about one mile from shore. Since 1894 the Hyde Park station has obtained its water supply from the Hyde Park crib, which was built about two miles off shore from Sixty-eighth street.

Crib Built to Supply Lake View.
Lake View has its own waterworks plant. To supply this station and district a new water tunnel terminating at the Lake View crib, two miles from shore, was completed in 1896.

In 1890 the Washington Heights district was an-nexed. It had a pumping station and pipe system supplied by water from a deep well. This system was improved and operated till the supply was found to be Inadequate, when, in 1895, water was supplied from the Hyde Park station.

The village of Norwood was annexed in 1893. Its water was obtained from artesian wells, pumped into a standpipe, and distributed through a system of anti. quated wooden mains.

A new tunnel system terminating with two new stations, one the Central Park avenue station and thi other the Springfield avenue station, was constructed’ and put into operation in 1900. The Carter H. Harrison crib, three miles off shore from Chicago avenue, was built to supply these stations.

In 1898 the construction of an elaborate system of large mains was begun, in order to combine as far as possible the various water pipe systems. Pifty miles of large distributing mains, varying in size from one foot to four feet, and hundreds of miles of smaller mains were laid.

The village of Rogers Park was annexed to the city in 1893. The waterworks plant was operated by a private corporation until recently, when it was taken over by the city.

Table Shows Stations’ Capacities.
The following table gives the several pumping stations and their capacity after recent Improvements and the new Roseland station and Edward F. Dunne crib will have been completed:

Additions and improvements at an estimated cost of $5,000,000 are planned to take care of demands for water supply as far in the future as 1919. The total pumping capacity of the various stations at that time will probably be 940,000,000 gallons daily, and the estmated amount per capita runs from 230 gallons to 250 gallons a day.

The present per capita pumpage of about 204 gallons every day is high in comparison to that of other large cities. Competent and experienced engineers say that it Is twice as much as is necessary. and that 100 gal-lens per capita should give a lavish supply of water for every one. As it has long been suspected that much of the water pumped was lost and wasted, an Investigation was made to determine the legitimate use of water and the leakage and waste. The results were astonishing.

Over 75 Per Cent Wasted.
It was definitely determined that a fraction over 75 per cent of water pumped was wasted. A better conception of this enormous waste can be given In fig-ures. The average pumpage in 1908 was 467,772.000 gallons daily, and the amount wasted, according to the city’s claim of a waste of 75 per cent, would be 350,-829.000 gallons a day. Who is guilty?

The city engineer earnestly urges the adoption of some method that will do away with this useless waste and claims that it can be accomplished by the use of meters on part of the service. He believes that it would save the taxpayers at least a half million dollars a year without restricting in any way legitimate use of water. The free use of water is good for the welfare of the community and is encouraged. The idea is to prevent waste and leakage that serve no purpose whatever.

Claims are made, based upon conclusions drawn by eminent engineers after observing actual conditions in other cities, that If meters were installed every year until 40 per cent of the service was metered, the pumpage would be much less than It is now, even considering the natural Increase in the per capita con sumption. In that event little would have to be ex pended In extension of pumping for many years to come, while on the other hand, If nothing is done to change present conditions, an average expenditure of at least $600,000 a year will be necessary for new tunnels and pumping plants alone.

An odd phase of the question is the part that the taxpayer plays. It is a quadruple röle. He bears the burden of the cost as cheerfully as possible: he com plains bitterly If he does not have enough water; he objects loudly if the tax is increased instead of de creased; and after all he is responsible the wasteful and thoughtless one for the enormous waste of was ter, the Increase necessary in the supply, and the conssequent increased expense to himselt.

The Land Owner, November, 1873

Never satisfied until it has exhausted every resource of information and instruction for its readers, The Land Owner lays before them in this number a complete series of illustrations of the system of tunnels begun in 1864 and now rapidly approaching final completion, which supply this great city with the pure and refreshing waters of Lake Michigan. Our artist, never wearying with studies of the grand and curious, has been for weeks engaged in visiting the bowels of the earth, where, under several parts of the city, gangs of men are at work night and day in making excavations, in going down the aqueous depths of the shaft at the lake crib, and in climbing to the lantern of the water tower on the shore.

The Old Tunnel.
In connection, and before describing the new tunnels now in process of excavation, it will be interesting to go back to the origin of the system and speak about the early struggles of the city to obtain pure water.

Ground was first broken for the Lake Tunnel, March 17th, 1864. The various causes which led to the undertaking of this gigantic work, and compelled such an enormous expenditure on the part of the city, may be briefly stated.

Since Chicago became a city, its great want had been an abundant supply of water. This want became more and more pressing as the city increased from a mere handful of settlers to the teaming mart of the Western World. Unlike most other cities, and especially those of the East, the surroundings of the Garden City were no more elevated than the place where the city itself stood, and no flow of water could be secured from any direction whatever. Indeed, the Chicago river possessed no current, being a bayou setting back from the lake, its source on a precise dead level with its mouth.

The astonishing growth of the city, unparalleled in the history of the world, its increasing commerce and trade, combined river to render the currentless river a cesspool of filth. Miles of sewerage were constructed, which discharge their foul contents into the turbid waters. Hundreds of steam tugs and lake craft plowed its surface, and the refuse and offal from numberless slaughter houses and packing establishments in the vicinity of Bridgeport, on the South Branch, found its way into the filthy river. In midsummer, the stench emitted from this repository of a city’s offal became intolerable; its waters grew yhick and slimy, obliging the steam craft that plowed its surface to go far ot into the lake to fill their boilers with pure water.

The New Water-Tunnel—Sinking The Shaft On Illinois Street

The waters of Lake Michigan were contaminated and befouled by the influx, rather than current of the river, for a great distance from the shore. A short distance north of the mouth of the river, the engines of the city water works were at work, pumping this foul liquid into the reservoirs, from whence it found its way into every family in the city.

Another grievous evil of the old water system was, that as cold weather approached, millions of infinitesimal fishes sought the enclosure near shore, from which the water was pumped. In spite of every effort, these scaly minnows would enter the reservoirs of the city, and come come out in scores from every hydrant alive and swimming. This was the greatest annoyance of all and one that could not be brooked. Every drop of water drank in the city was highly flavored of fish, and one was obliged to look twice in his goblet to see that he did not swallow one alive.

This had been the precise condition of Chicago since it arose from the prairie to be the largest city in the western world. It was blessed with commerce; with unequalled resources and avenues of wealth; with railroads running to it from every quarter of the country, draining the bountifully yielding prairies, and pouring their products into its granaries and storehouses. Emigration flowed toward it with unchecked tide. Its people grew rich, its schools numerous; its magnificent churches could be counted by scores; its fine public buildings and private residences astonished the world. Its population increased enormously each year. And Chicago was great, prosperous, and happy, with the sole exception that it lacked the one great essential to vitality, to life itself and the life of its citizens,—pure water.

Early Agitation of the Water Question.
This state of things was endured quite submissively until the year 1863, when the citizens began to show a determination to have it ameliorated in some manner or an-other. The war was in progress, and the nation was too much excited for anybody to think of much else. Engineers, men of mind and ability all over the country, were turning their attention to the field. The pencil of the draughtsman was busy in outlining fortifications, bridging rivers and outwitting the rebel foe. The all absorbing topic was the war. Men of wealth opened their purses and gave to the common cause; patriotic ladies and children did their best to help it to a triumph. The prospects were indeed poor for any great outlay in any other direction. But still the local agitation was kept up, until finally different parties began to submit plaus and specifications for purifying the river.

Many of these devices were Yankee in the extreme, and not a few of them almost provoked a laugh. Perhaps the most elaborate if any was that prepared by Mr. Gindele, of the Board of Public Works. He suggested that the waters of the Calumet and Desplaines rivers be diverted into the Chicago river, by means of the feeder and the use of pumps. To this it was objected that the supply of water would be inadequate, while the adoption of the plan would involve the city in interminable and expensive chancery suits, the diversion of the current of the streams and of the canal seeming necessarily to encroach upon rights which had vested in the canal company, and in the owners of mill property and water privileges on the canal and on the running streams.

A second plan suggested was to build a series of intercepting sewers, similar in their nature to those which have lately been erected in the city of London, for the purification of the river Thames. These, it was thought by some, could be constructed along the margin of the river, as reservoirs for the filth passing within its borders and from the sewers, the contents thus received being emptied into the lake, or distributed over the country for purposes of agriculture. This suggestion had a theoretic value. The largest city of the world adopted it, at an enormous expense, but to the time of its consideration here no results had been deduced which would warrant a certainty of probable success. The expenditure of money would be very great, and the loss of time would be considerable, and on so great an experiment, which had not in itself a fair prospect of success, our people were unwilling to enter. A covered aqueduct was also proposed. This it was thought should be of the diameter of ten feet, to extend from the lake to the river, which it should enter at some point on the south side, a point at about Sixteenth st. being designated. To this plan it was objected, that the obnoxious matter being emptied into the lake so near the point whence the lake water would be drawn, it would be corrupted and increase rather than diminish the evil complained of.

About this time the ship canal bill was killed, a result feared by many of our citizens. It deprived them of all hope of relief in this direction, and gave an impetus to the Tunnel project, which shortly afterwards gained great favor among all classes. Every scheme as yet presented had proved untenable, and the desired end–that of providing an abundance of pure water for Chicago, -was quite as far off as ever. Only one point had been gained, and that was, the people had now become thoroughly aroused on the subject. The grand result shows what popular will and determination can accomplish.

A Tunnel Under Lake Michigan.
The inventive genius of our citizens, and particularly of the different members of the Board of Public Works, was now thoroughly aroused. Western determination was at work, and Teutonic pluck was resolved to unloose the bulldog’s grip. We had plenty of pure water constantly in our view, tantalizing as the fact may appear. It was true that Lake Michigan was quite as foul as the river, near its mouth, but at a certain distance from shore the water be. came as pure as Croton, cold and clear as crystal. The contaminating influences of the Chicago river possessed no power over the waters of the lake, at a distance of two miles from shore. Here, then, was an eternal reservoir, from which Chicago could derive pure water in abundance, long after the masonry of the Croton aqueducts should crumble. It was a glorious idea in embryo. How could this natural supply of water be appropriated and made to flow through the miles o pipes and numberless hydrants of the city? The water, to insure its constant purity, must be drawn from the lake, at a distance of at least two miles from shore, far beyond the murky influx of the river and the city sewers. It was a great problem, worthy of the mind of genius. And it was solved. Chicago possessed a mind and a man equal to the gigantic task.

To Mr. E. S. Chesbrough, the skillful and accomplished city engineer, belongs the cre dit of the original idea of constructing a tunnel, two miles in length, beneath the bed of Lake Michigan, which should literally tap the lake from the bottom, at that distance from shore, and through which pure water should be conveyed into the reservoirs of the city. No sooner had Mr. Chesbrough conceived the idea of a tunnel, than he proceeded to investigate the subject. He soon determined, in his own mind at least, that it was entirely feasible, and prepared plans for its construction, into which the other members of the Board of Public Works entered with a will.

On the 13th day of February, 1863, the amended city charter was approved, in which power was given to the city “to construct such aqueducts along the shore of Lake Michigan, or in the highways, or elsewhere in said Cook county, and to construct such pumping works, breakwaters, subsiding basins, filter beds and reservoirs, and to lay such water mains, and to make all other constructions in said county, as shall be necessary in obtaining from Lake Michigan a sufficient and abundant supply of pure water for said city;” “to extend aqueducts, or inlet pipes, into Lake Michigan, so far as may be deemed necessary to insure a supply of pure water, and to erect a pier or piers in the navigable waters of said lake, for the making, preserving and working of pipes or aqueducts.”

Congress sanctioned this action of the Ilinois State Legislature, January 16, 1864.

And so the Chicago Lake Tunnel became a tangible thing.

Examination of the Bed by the Lake.
Soon after the action of the State Legislature, but before its sanction by Congress, the bed of the lake was examined, with a view to test the feasibility of excavating the Tunnel. In the month of June, 1863, the City Engineer, with some scientific aid, commenced boring to ascertain the nature of the bottom. The experiments were made first. at some twenty feet from the shore. At about two hundred feet from the shore, the water being a little over twenty feet deep, there was blue clay underlying a sandy covering. These experiments led to others. Two scows were towed into the lake and secured by anchors. From between these a two-inch gas pipe was lowered until it rested on the surface of the earth, the top being two or three feet above the surface of the water.
Down this tube an auger was passed, both being capable of being lengthened by screwing additional parts to each. At three-quarters of a mile from the shore, the water being twenty feet deep, there was found a four-inch covering of sand and thirty feet of blue clay. One and three-quarters miles out, the water being thirty-one feet deep, the same substratum was discovered. Two miles and a quarter due east of the water works, near the site of the crib as at present located, the water, being thirty feet deep, was clear and cool. The earth was penetrated to the depth of thirty feet. Here was found a covering of sand and soft mashy clay, with a clay becoming more hard and compact as it was sunk into On June 16th, of the same year, the temperature of the water began to be tested. Its clearness was apparent, a small object being visible at a distance of eighteen feet, the water being thirty-six feet deep. On the surface, the thermometer showed, at three o’clock of the 16th day of June, sixty degrees, and at the bottom fifty-one and a-half degrees. These experiments continued to be carried on with the like result of exhibiting a clay substratum, the approach to the shore, however, showing a deeper alluvial deposit. composed mainly of sand.

Award of the First Tunnel Contract.
The result of the above experiments was the adoption of Mr. Chesbrough’s idea of building a tunnel under the lake, which they demonstrated to be entirely practicable to the minds of the engineers. The old methods of purifying the river, the compound sewers, ship canals, windmills, etc., were at once abandoned; and it is said that the Board of Public Works occasionally laugh at their own folly in once entertaining such plans, now that the correct one has been found. But it was only through such inquiry and examination—research deep and long—that the proper plan was at last obtained.

The necessary drawings and specifications were now prepared, under the never wearying eye of Mr. Chesbrough. Advertisements for bids for building the Chicago Lake Tunnel soon astonished the world, appearing in all the Chicago papers, and, as we believe, the New York dailies. Several letters containing “sealed proposals” or bids were soon received, which were opened on the 9th of September, 1868, in the presence of the Board of Public Works, and nearly all the several parties proposing.

Messrs. Dull & Gowan, of Harrisburg, Pa., gentlemen well known in the engineering world, although not the lowest bidders, were the only parties who made an unqualified proposal, taking all risks of soil, etc., upon themselves, and consequently the contract was awarded to them.

The contract for this gigantic work, pronounced by engineers of both hemispheres to be the greatest the world ever saw, and beside which the tunneling of the Thames was mere child’s play, was signed and sealed on the 28th day of October, 1863. The paper, which bound the contractors to undertake and complete the greatest project ever entered upon by men, and the city of Chicago to pay them for the same, together with the penalties of failure by either party, bears the signatures of James J. Dull and James Gowan, the contractors, and J. G. Gindele, Frederick Letz, O. J. Kose, and F. C. Sherman, Commissioners of the Board of Public Works, and specifies the completion of the work “on or before the first day of November, A. D. 1865.” As will be seen hereafter, the time fixed for the completion of the work proved to be far too carly. It was destined to be the work of years.

The New Water-Tunnel—Apparatus For Elevating The Earth At The Shaft.

Ground Broken.
A delay of about two months in the casting of the huge cylinders for the shore shaft of the tunnel, at Pittsburg, Pa., postponed the inauguration ceremonies until the 14th of March, 1861, on which day the first shovelful of earth was removed. These ceremonies were of an interesting character, every man participating in them feeling aware of the great undertaking upon which they were entering, and the disgrace which a failure would bring both upon themselves and the city. The ceremonies were witnessed by about one hundred gentlemen, among whom were Mayor Sherman, Messrs. Letz and Rose, of the Board of Public Works, Mr. B. S. Hayes, the City Comptroller, Messrs. E. S. Chesbrough, U. P. Harris, and a majority of the Common Council. The Mayor made a few remarks appropriate to the occasion, and then took the pick and broke the ground, amid the cheers of the, company.
Each of the gentlemen took a shovelful of earth and placed it in the wheel-barrow, which was taken away by Colonel Gowan, one of the contractors. The field was then abandoned to Messrs. Dull & Gow-an, and the work placed in their hands; the Board reserving the right to examine and criticise the operations as they progressed.

Sinking the Shore Shaft.
Messrs. Dall & Gowan, the contractors, now entered zealously upon their enterprise.
A shaft about nine feet in diameter was sunk, on the above site, a short distance from the shore of the lake. When the workmen had descended a short distance into the earth they encountered a bed of shifting quicksand, which for a time defied all efforts at excava-tion. It was originally intended to construct the shaft wholly of brick, running it down from the surface of the ground, to a depth of fifteen feet below the level of the bottom of the lake, but encountering the quicksand compelled the abandonment of this method. The contract was consequently deviated from, and the contractors were authorized to run down an iron cylinder of the same dimensions as the centre of the crib, as far as the bottom of the sand bed, about twenty-six feet. This inlet cylinder is nine feet in diameter, inside, and two and a quarter inches thick. It is cast in four sections of about nine feet in length. The great labor of sinking these sections will be apparent to all. From the bottom of these cylinders, twenty-six feet, the shaft was continued into the earth until it reached the depth of sixty-nine feet, being constructed of brick from the point were the iron cylinders cease.

This shaft is not unlike an immense well. It was destined to be the great highway through which the clay excavated from the Tunnel proper should be conveyed to the outer world, and much satisfaction was felt by the contractors when this bare commencement of their great work was accomplished.

Over the mouth of this shaft, a rough, temporary building was erected, large enough to contain a steam engine of great power, the office of the contractors, and the brick, cement, tools, etc., used by the workmen. An elevator was now constructed, which carried the miners up and down the shaft to their work, being propelled by the engine.
Stepping upon this platform, half a dozen hardy miners, carrying each his little lamp, pick and shovel, would descend far far beneath the view of the spectators to their labors in the bowels of the earth. The clay which they excavated was brought up the shaft in the same manner, and the brick, cement, etc., carried down.

At the bottom of the shaft water soon began to ooze in, and it became necessary to construct a pump, which was worked by the engine, and which kept it dry.

Excavating the Tunnel Proper.
At the depth of sixty-nine feet the workmen stopped, and the shore “shaft” was pronounced a success. Here began that nice engineering, which one of the editors of the London Times, who had visited the Tunnel, pronounced “the greatest of modern times.”

The point in the lake where the Tunnel should receive water had already been fixed, by means of soundings, and buoys marked the spot. An imaginary straight line was drawn, which the Tunnel was to follow from the point where it crossed the shaft, which was little less than prolonging a straight line nine feet in length, without deviation, until it reached some point two miles ahead. The compass, the natural reliance of man upon the lake, could not be relied upon under the lake. Local attractions of earth would render it uselessly inaccurate, so far as giving anything more than a general direction was concerned. The only method of procedure was to run the axis of the Tunnel parallel with the straight line drawn over the lake, which was only observable at the point where it crossed the shaft.

With this, to less scientific minds than those engaged in the great work, frail reliance, the miners struck their picks into the hard clay at the bottom of the shaft, and excavating was commenced directly lakewards. The clay was thrown upon the elevator before mentioned, and drawn up the shaft, while an ingenious apparatus was arranged which carried it off and “dumped” it.

The width of the Tunnel, when bricked up, was decided to be five feet, and its clear height five feet two inches, the top and bottom arches being semi-circles. Two miners were all that could work upon the excavation ahead of the masons who laid the brick, and they were relieved at regular intervals, so that the work should not stop for a moment. The brick masonry, which followed the miners as fast as they advanced, was eight inches thick, the brick being laid lengthwise of the Tunnel, with toothing joints, to give it greater strength and durability. Between this masonry and the sides of the excavation, as much of the earth was forced back as possible. The lower half of the bore was constructed in such a manner that the bricks lie against the clay, while in the upper half the bricks were wedged between the brick and the earth, thus preventing any danger which might result from the tremendous pressure which it was feared might burst in the Tunnel.

The material used in the masonry was white Illinois brick, of the usual size, laid in cement. The Tunnel was to have a slope from the “crib,” or lake terminus, to the shore, of two feet to the mile, to admit of its being emptied in case repairs should at any future time be necessary, the water being shut off by means of gates at the lake end.

In this slow and tedious manner, the workmen made their way under the lake, from fourteen to twenty feet being considered great progress for twenty-four hours, the work being continued night and day. Before they had advanced far from the shaft, the air began to grow impure, and each day the difficulty increased. Here was an obstacle of no small moment to encounter. A large steam bellows was obtained, and placed at the mouth of the shaft, from which piping, not unlike ordinary stove pipe, was run down the shaft, branching off into the Tunnel. This tube was perforated with holes. in such a manner that the operation of the bellows extracted the impure or dead air from the Tunnel, causing pure oxygen to fill its place, which in turn was carried off by the pipe, when it was consumed by the lungs of the workmen. As the Tunnel progressed, this pipe was lengthened, and thus a constant supply of pure air was obtained.

Soon it became necessary to provide some more rapid means of transporting the earth from the face of the excavation to the shaft. Rails were laid down, and small cars placed upon them. At the commencement these cars were propelled to the shaft by workmen, where they were drawn up, and their contents discharged. But as the distance in-creased, day by day, and new lengths of rail were added, other means of locomotion were sought. Much to the edification of laborers, two small mules were purchased, which could barely stand between the walls of the Tunnel without rubbing their ears. After some little schooling, these tractable animals were placed upon the elevator, and lowered into the earth. After a little experience and training, they learned their work, and performed it well.

Several cars at a time were now loaded, and the mules attached, which drew them to the shaft. A regular time-table was pre-pared, to avoid collisions, as it was impossible for any person entering the bore to pass the “down’ train, should he be so unlucky as to encounter it in the bowels of the earth. At the shaft, the mules were turned around, and the train of empty cars drawn back. These mules and their long train of cars presented a very picturesque appearance, each of them wearing a small lamp upon his collar, which served for the calcium light before the engine. This submarine railroading will be further spoken of in another place.

When the Tunnel had reached the distance of one thousand feet from the shaft, a sort of chamber or stopping place was made, where the excavation was enlarged, to afford a deposit for the material used, a place to mix the cement, turn-tables for the cars, stables for the mules, etc., as seen in the illustrations. These we left at the distance of one thousand feet apart, to be bricked up when the whole work was completed. The distance was marked upon the inside of the bore, as fast as the work progressed from the shaft, every five feet.

The Crib and Its Successful Launch.
The “crib,” as it has been commonly called, was built on shore, and launched, much like the Great Eastern or any other sea going hulk. It was composed of huge timbers and tons of iron, no expense being spared to make it strong; it was forty feet six inches high and built in a pentagonal form, in a circumscribed circle of ninety-eight and a half feet in diameter. It was constructed with three walls—the outer, the center, and the inner—making it almost like three distinct structures, one inside the other, and all firmly braced or bolted together, so as to constitute one great structure. Each of these walls was caulked and tarred, like the hulk of a vessel. They were constructed of twelve-inch square timber, the first twelve feet from the top of white oak, and the remaining twenty-eight feet of white pine. Each piece of timber comprising either wall was firmly bolted in its place with square rods of iron, one and five-sixteenths of an inch in diameter and thirty inches long. The bottom was composed of twelve-inch timbers, held in place by bolts thirty-six inches in length, passing through three distinct layers of timber. The whole framework was a combination of massive timbers and irons, irmly held together by bars and bolts and braced in every direction. In the center was “well,” open at the bottom and top, through which the shaft was to descend into the bottom of the lake.

The Crib, Or Lake End Of The Tunnels, Where The Pure Water Is Taken From The Bottom Of Lake Michigan, Two Miles From Shore.

Each angle of the crib was provided with iron armor, to protect it from ice or any other body borne upon the waves. This covering was of iron two and a half inches thick, and covered the structure two feet each way from the angles, and extended downwards from the top twelve feet. This armor was fastened to the outer wall of the crib and the adjacent timbers by iron bolts thirty inches long, and to the inner wall and its timbers by round iron bolts, an inch and a half in diameter and thirteen and a half feet in length.

That people may form a correct idea of this immense structure, and the importance it possessed in the great work, we give a few items of the timber and iron used in its construction. It cost not far from one hundred thousand dollars before it was moved from the stocks. Reduced to board measure, there the stocks. were used in building it 618,885 feet of lumber, as follows:

Besides this, there were used flve hundred bales of oakum and sixty-five tons of iron bolts.

This immense structure was built like a vessel, on the north pier, a short distance from the mouth of the river. On the 24th day of July, 1865, an immense concourse of people gathered on the spot to see it launched. So great was the interest felt in its being successfully put in position, that merchants left their counting-rooms and hurried to the scene. Thousands of people were present, standing upon the house tops, riding upon the river in yawls, and seated in carriages upon the banks and piers.

The launch was announced to occur at between nine and ten o’clock in the morning. The day was propitious, scarcely a ripple breaking the surface of the lake. From the summit of the crib floated American flags, and the hat of Col. Gowan was occasionally visible, as he went to and fro, giving orders to the workmen. The river itself presented a lively appearance.
Seven tugboats, with flags, flying and hundreds of people on their decks, among whom were Governor Oglesby, of Illinois, and many other distinguished men, were waiting in the harbor to tow the monster to its place in the lake.

Shortly after ten o’clock, the leviathan moved, rode slowly into the river, with streaming flags, and the hat of Col. Gowan swinging over his head from the top. Cannon boomed. hundreds of steam whistles shrieked, bells rang, and thousands of throats cheered lustily. When about in the middle of the river, the mass left the ways upon which it rode, and rose upon the water as gracefully as any craft that ever was launched.

The tugboats now attached their hawsers, and the crib was towed slowly towards the buoys in the lake, which had been placed there to mark its position, on a direct line with the shore shaft. These were reached at two o’clook p. m., and the hawsers out loose. The gates of the crib were opened as soon as it was in position, and it settled majestically into the lake, where it is ever more to remain, a monument of mind over matter.

When the crib was in place it was filled with stone, with the exception of the centre compartment, reserved for the lake shaft to go through, and oables were attached to its corners, which were fastened to the bottom of the lake by means of Mitchell’s marine mooring screws, never before used except in tunneling the Thames. The screws had previously been imbedded in the bottom of the lake.

The next end to be obtained was sinking the cylinders in the crib, in order that tun neling could commence in both directions. The winter of ’65 was at hand. A large quantity of brick and mortar were taken out piled upon the orib, as well as provisions for the men; it being anticipate that when the winter set in, the ice would not permit of reaching the crib for months at a time.

Sinking the Lake Shaft.
The huge iron cylinders, which were to form the lake shaft of the Tunnel. were at length got out upon the crib, after much vexatious delay and expense to the contractors. These cylinders are nine feet in diameter. and the iron is two and a half inches thick. They were cast at Pittsburg, Pa, in nine. feet sections, their immense weight rendering it otherwise impossible to move them. The end of each section was provided with a heavy flange, through which it could be bolted to the one below it, similarly constructed. These cylinders are seven in number, their respective weight being about eleven tons. The irons used in bolting them together were one and a half inch, cemented as well as riveted in their places.

These immense cylinders once placed upon the crib, the next step was to get them in place in the center compartment of the structure. Mr. Bramhall, one of the engineers, solved the problem, inventing machinery and tackle for the occasion. The cylinders were partially suspended over the chasm in the crib by this tackle, then swung upon ways and supports of timber, in which manner they were at last placed in position and firmly riveted together.
After reaching the bottom of the lake, on which the crib rested, being sunk into the clay several inches by its immense weight, these cylinders, or sections of the shaft, were sunk into the ground twenty-seven feet, in much the same manner as the shore shaft was built, at which distance they reached the required depth, leaving a fall of two feet to the mile in a straight line drawn to the bottom of the shore shaft.

A complete shaft in the lake was thus formed, by means of the crib. The work now resolved itself into simply this: An island (the crib) is situated in Lake Michi-gan, two miles from shore, upon which (to draw a homely illustration that all will understand) are confined a number of convicts. There is no means of their escape to the city over the surface of the water, and they resolved to go under it. Never dreaming of this trick, the authorities have placed in their hands picks and spades, with which to till the island whereon they are confined for life. The villains go to work, dig a hole in the island until its bottom is below the bottom of the lake, then strike off for the shore. which they succeed in reaching after years of toil, much to the surprise of every body. This is the plan of the Tunnel, the crib forming an artificial island where the water is to enter, and pass to the shore, free from the impurities of the river or the oity sewers.

The lake shaft being ready, tunneling was commenced from the bottom towards the shore, on the first day of the New Year, 1866. The first brick at the crib end was laid on the 29d day of December, 1865. At that time the shore shaft had reached the length of 4.815 feet. The earth removed from the face of the Tunnel was carried up the shaft and dumped into the lake, and as it progressed similar appliances to the furtherance of the work were used to those already described at the shore shaft.

Scenes and Incidents Under the Lake.
It can easily be imagined that while the miners worked day and night, week after week, month after month, year after year, down in the bowels of the earth, directly under a large and ever restless body of water, that scenes and incidents occurred which would interest the world above ground, could they all be related with any sort of accuracy or coloring that would do them justice.

Veins of natural gas were frequently encountered by the mines, which often proved dangerous in the extreme. Becoming somewhat acoustomed to these froaks of nature, they at length began to treat them uniformly and with success. The sound of their picks as they struck them into the olay ahend, on the face of the excavation, told them when they were approaching a vein. When within a certain distance of it, they bored into the earth with an auger, pulling it out the instant the vein was struck and applying their lamp. The gas would instantly ignite, burn with a bright, clear flame, which light up the Tunnel for a long distance with a fitful glare. Some of these jets would burn several hours, obliging the workmen to leave the Tunnel, and await the extinction of the vein, when they would again proceed as before.

One day, while Col. Gowan was showing a party of visitors into the Tunnel, they distinotly heard the paddle wheels of a steamer, which just at that moment passed directly over their heads, on the lake, showing that the water and the earth were both good sound conduotors.
Returning to the outer world, they described the vessel steaming her way towards the harbor. The workmen frequently reported hearing similar sounds.

In September, 1865, a crevice was struck, through, which water began to drip into the Tunnel. The frightened miners fled in dismay, but soon returned, repaired the crevice, and proceeded with their work.

The New Water-Tunnel—Railroading And The Mule Train In The Tunnel.

The First Tunnel Completed.
On Saturdey, the 24th of November, 1866, the morning papers informed the citizens of Chicago that the two sections of the Tunnel bad progressed so not tomato o the dalthat them. The glorious result sent a thrill of joy to every heart, and the telegraph carried it to every quarter of the globe. The long anticipated time had arrived—the vexing question as to whether the two mining parties would meet, or, from some slight error of the engineers, pass by each other, and continue on tunneling at random, was answered. When it wis further announced that the sections had met each other to within the space of an inch, wonder at the grand result took the place of joy.

A new pumping engine, suficiently powerful to elevate into the reservoirs, from the Tunnel, eighteen million gallons of water in twenty-four hours, was purchased, which was placed in the new building. This engine, which at that time was the largest ever put up in the West, cost $112,350. It was built from designs drawn by Mr. Cregier, and is a model of beautiful machinery. Our illustration shows another monster engine since put up, and now in operation at the works.

Extensions Demanded—The New Tunnel.
But a year ago the original Tunnel was found to be inadequate to supply the rapidly growing city with water. Over such a great area had the city extended, that the supply in sections remote from the works was short, and occasioned great inconvenience. The Board of Public Works again set to work, and a now Tunnel, to act as a companion to the original one, is now being excavated. Mr. Wallis, in his sectional view of the water system of the city, has graphically shown this now “bore,” which runs along parallel with the old Tunnel, from the crib to the old pumping works, from whence it cuts under the entire city, to a point on the south branch of the river, to the lot recently purchased by the city of S. J. Walker, Esq., where the new pumping works are to be erected.

This tunnel under the city is now progressing rapidly. Shafts are sunk in several different localities, as seen in the sketohes, and the work is going rapidly forward. The method of excavating is similar to that employed in the old Tunnel, and fully described above:

The Completed System.
When this vast system is at length fluished, Chiongo will have the most perfect water works in the world, and certainly the most original and unique.

Our Water-Tunnels—Sectional View Showing The Entire Water System Of Chicago, From The Lake To The New Pumping Works, Corner Of Twenty-Second Street And Blue Island Avenue.

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