You're standing next to a river that flows the wrong direction. Chicago made it do that.
Here's what happened. In the 1800s, Chicago dumped its sewage into the river. The river flowed into Lake Michigan. The lake was the drinking water. I trust you see the problem.
People died. A lot of people. In 1854, 6% of the city died in one summer. That's not a rough year. That's the first act of a disaster movie.
So the city needed a solution. They could build a sewage treatment system. Or — and here's where it gets very Chicago — they could dig a giant canal, reverse the flow of the entire river, and send all the sewage downstream toward Saint Louis instead.
They picked Saint Louis.
It took eight years. They moved more dirt than the Panama Canal would later move. Workers called it the Big Flush.
Saint Louis noticed. They sued. Took it all the way to the Supreme Court. And Chicago's legal defense was — I'm not exaggerating — "the river is big, and poop dilutes."
The Supreme Court said: "Y
eah, actually, that's a fair point."
Chicago won. They got to keep sending their sewage downstream. And then they got a plaque.
— From the tour: The Postcard Tour
