Bylines and Byways CRUISING THE CHICAGO RIVER The Encyclopedia of Chicago tells you something strange and funny about their river: by human engineering, the rivers flow has been reversed starting in the year 1900; and every March 17, since 1962, as the city celebrates St. Patricks Day, the river is dyed green, the color of Ireland. Being the terminus of the farm produce of much of the Midwest, a world power in agriculture, Chicago was the capital of the stockyards and the meat-packing industry. So one could just imagine the sewage and the offal of all the beef, chicken and pork being poured into the river and canals that find their way into the Great Lakes, and one day, it has reached the point that they cannot even rely on their drinking water anymore. That put the fear of the Lord into their hearts. The next thing that happened was an ingenious solution: impose a strict environmental standard on the whole industry, create new channels, and reverse the flow of the river. Yes, instead of the river pouring into Lake Michigan, let the lakes waters help push the whole thing to the Mississippi Valley waterways. Its not sure that that pleased their southern neighbors, but it seemed to have licked the problem. So in 1999, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) awarded Chicago the Civil Engineering Monument of the Millennium. Stephen M. Bailey was a flamboyant leader of Chicagos plumbers union. One day in 1961 one of his associates came to their office with his white overalls splattered with green dye. He asked what happened, and the plumber told him that he was repairing the leak in a factorys sewerage, and to make sure that he solved the problem (there was one heck of a big fine), he poured a lot of dye into the pipes. A light bulb flashed in the brain of this Irish fanatic: why not pour green dye into the Chicago River during St. Patricks Day Parade. Why not? So after a number of tries, Stephen Bailey and his cohorts perfected the method, and that started the whole tradition of painting the whole river green on St. Patricks Day. Dan Lydon, once the chairman and long-time parade coordinator for St. Patricks Day, wrote an article as told to him by a true Irishman (whoever he was) about Stephen Bailey. The guys exaggeration was simply outstanding: The Chicago River will dye the Illinois, which will dye the Mississippi, which will dye the Gulf of Mexico, which will send green dye up the Gulf Stream across the North Atlantic into the Irish Sea, a sea of green surrounding the land will appear as a greeting to all the Irishmen of the Emerald Isle from the men of Erin in Chicagoland, USA. This same Bailey guy took up the challenge when the great Albert Einstein wrote an article in obvious exasperation: I would rather choose to be a plumber or a peddler in the hope of finding that most modest degree of independence still available. The next thing that Bailey did was to send a membership form to Einstein for the Chicago Journeymen Plumbers Union: ...He is going to have to pay dues and attend meetings, but well waive the apprenticeship period. That earned Bailey the national headlines. I like this guy, so I was not sorry when we embarked on the river cruise along the Chicago River. There are two ways to go around: a one-and-a-half-hour tour on a big boat complete with a guide explaining the glories of Chicagos skyscrapers, and that would set you back $37; or take that yellow water taxi with a day pass, without tour guide and no frills, and you pay $10 on a weekend ($8 on weekdays), and you can hop on and off at every station to your hearts desire. Well, naturally, we took the second choice.
Posted on: Wed, 24 Sep 2014 23:02:14 +0000
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