tion. It has been sold from time to time to various companies as it lies in the spoil banks at prices ranging from 10 to 15 cents per cubic yard, and in quantities from 100 to 1,050,000 cubic yards. This spoil bank furnished all the stone for the new break-water at Lincoln Park, and it is furnishing stone for the new breakwater at Gary, Ind. The Trustees have been unwearying in their effort to sell the stone. It not only brings in a revenue but its removal creates dock space which can be rented for commercial purposes." THE DEEP WATERWAY AND THE WATER POWER "So in the waterway question the elemental principles of right and equity, of hydraulics and navigation, brought forward in 1907, are now fought by the private interests on one hand and submerged in impractical visions on the other. The visionaries have played into the hands of the grafters by refusing to support any other than their own schemes, while the self-seeking ‘interests' have taken advantage of the visionaries by throwing their whole strength into framing plans which their own acumen tells them to be impossible. "The Des Plaines and Illinois rivers between the dams at Joliet and Marseilles are sixty-seven miles in length. They have been surveyed for improvement a number of times, and, with the exception of one report, which, on its face, was made with the idea of turning over all water power to private companies, all authorities are substantially agreed upon the proper form of improvement, which is the construction of dams at certain points and the excavation of channels in certain portions. All authorities substantially agree upon the location of these dams. The only open question is as to the size of the channel to be obtained by the improve ment. "In their present state the Des Plaines and Illinois rivers between Joliet and Marseilles are navigable, not in law—at least not in the law of Illinois, for the Supreme Court has so decided it but in fact. The Supreme Court can determine the law, but it cannot alter the facts. These streams are navigable; I know it because I have navigated them, and without difficulty. They can be improved, greatly improved, by the erection of dams and embankments, and the cost of these improvements can be entirely paid from the water power created at these dams. "That does not, of course, mean that a channel of any size that man may wish can be created in these rivers and paid for from the water power developed. Navigation on the Illinois River below Marseilles is profitable, though limited, because the Illinois does not furnish a through transportation line, nor does it run between any two large centers of population. Navigation on the Drainage Canal is practically nil, owing to the fact that the Drainage Canal ends 'in the air,' with no market at its inner end. But between the southern end of the Drainage Canal and the northern end of navigation in the Illinois River lies a navigable stream, blocked by dams, around which there are no locks, which is easily capable of improvement. Open up this stretch at whatever depth you will, and navigation will grow upon it and its own growth and development will determine the depth and size of channel which should be used." PRESENT STATUS OF THE WATER WAY QUESTION The waterway proposition is still in a formative state, and remains an unsolved problem at this time. The General Assembly of Illinois has not made any pro vision as yet for the construction of a waterway under the power granted to it by the constitutional amendment ratified by the people in November, 1908. It is as large and perplexing a problem now as it has been at any time since the issue attracted public notice. Hardly a week goes by while these lines are being written that the question does not assume some new and unexpected phase, and men's minds are in a continual state of flux in regard to it. What the form of this question will take in its settlement it is impossible to predict; but one thing is certain, the people are now alert and every aspect of the great question is receiving the consideration it deserves. WELLS UTILIZED CHAPTER XLIX WATER SUPPLY AND TUNNELS FOR EARLY WATER SUPPLY-WATER DIPPED FROM THE LAKEPUMPING ENGINE INSTALLED-RESERVOIRS AND WATER TOWER-WATER TUNNELS -FIRST TUNNEL BUILT-DIFFICULTIES OF PLACING CRIB IN POSITION-GREAT ENTERPRISE-BUILDING PUBLIC REJOICING AT COMPLETION OF THE WORK-OTHER TUNNELS BUILT—THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE WATER SUPPLY HE Board of Trustees of the town of Chicago in 1834 paid ninety-five dollars for digging a well at what is now the corner of Cass and Michigan streets. The settlers, however, soon realized that the lake was the most suitable source from which their water supply should be drawn, and for some years private enterprise supplied the wants of the people by means of water carts. Gale, in his "Reminiscences," says that water was sold from these carts at ten cents a barrel, which certainly could not be considered an exorbitant charge. "With a hogshead placed on its side on a two-wheeled cart, with a hole sawed in the upper surface to receive the contents of the long-handled bucket, the boys," says Gale, "would drive into the water, and standing on the heavy shafts fill the cask, which was emptied in barrels at our doors through a short leathern hose." Those living near the lake or river helped themselves, as did the cattle and horses also. In 1842, five years after the city had been incorporated, a twenty-four horse power engine was installed to pump water from the lake at the foot of Lake street, which could raise twenty-five barrels of water per minute into a reservoir, holding twelve hundred and fifty barrels, thirty-five feet above the level of the lake. The water was taken from the lake through a fourteen inch pipe at a point three hundred and twenty feet from the shore, the pipe protected by a pier. The water pipes in the streets consisted of cedar logs ten feet long, through which three and a half inch holes were bored lengthwise of the logs. There were two miles of these log water mains laid three feet under ground. So far the water supply had been controlled by private enterprise, but, in 1851. when Chicago had a population of thirty thousand people, an issue was made on the question of public ownership of the water system. Walter S. Gurnee was elected. mayor, and the rights and franchises of the Chicago Hydraulic Company were taken over by the city. A new site for the pumping works was selected at the foot of Chicago avenue. Here a building and standpipe were erected, within which was installed the great vertical beam engine so familiar to old Chicagoans for fifty years. This engine was a wonder in its day. Its cylinder was forty-four inches. in diameter, and its piston stroke was nine feet. The great fly wheel had a diameter of twenty-four feet, and weighed twelve tons. The "walking beam," which was a striking feature of this great engine, was thirty feet in length. For half a century, from the date of its completion in 1853, barring intervals for necessary repairs, it continued in service, finally with some other ancient engines being taken down in 1903, and replaced by new engines of more recent designs. This venerable piece of machinery was known to the engineers at the pumping station as "Sally." It was for many years one of the principal attractions for sight-seers and visitors, the people of Chicago taking a great pride in its size and efficiency. The water pumped by this engine was distributed through three reservoirs, one located at La Salle and Adams Streets, on the site of the present Rookery Building, the second at Chicago avenue and Sedgwick street, and the third at Morgan and Monroe Each of these reservoirs held about two or three days' supply. streets. The Chicago avenue pumping works took its supply of water from a basin near the shore constructed in the following manner: From the shore north of the pumping station a double row of piles was driven which extended a thousand feet into the lake, then south and then back to the shore on the south line of the grounds of the water works. In the space between these rows of piles rough stone blocks were thrown, through which the water from the lake percolated into the basin. In the center of this enclosed body of water was built a crib protected by screens to keep out floating articles, and through this flowed the water into an inlet pipe connecting with the pumping works near by. The water tower was of brick fourteen feet square at the bottom and diminishing to eleven feet at the top one hundred and thirty-six feet from the ground. Its foundation proved to be insecure so that when the stand-pipe within was filled with water the tower was deflected fourteen inches from the perpendicular. The water was withdrawn from the stand-pipe and the foundation strengthened. The tower continued in service for many years. The building and tower were replaced by more substantial structures in 1867, the new tower reaching a height of one hundred and fifty feet. A report made the next year speaks of the work as follows: "Chicago has outgrown her water works of sixteen years ago. Today upon the site of the old buildings stand in their stead white stone structures which for beauty, strength and magnitude are probably unsurpassed by any buildings in the United States for like purposes." In spite of the precautions taken to insure a supply of pure water it was found that great numbers of small fish were admitted into the inlet pipe and were drawn through the hydrants. Much complaint on this score, and also on account of roiled water after storms, obliged the authorities to make plans for a tunnel under the bed of the lake at the end of which a crib was to be constructed. This tunnel was completed in 1866 as described below. The engineer who proposed and afterwards planned this method of obtaining pure water was Ellis S. Chesbrough, a man of broad views, and who had been city engineer since 1855. He had suggested and, under the authority of the Common Council, had planned the new grades for the city which caused so serious an interruption to city traffic in the later fifties, but with permanently beneficial results. It will be interesting to describe in detail some of the essential features of the work on the tunnel, so that the reader may understand the difficulties that the builders were obliged to contend with at a time when construction of that character was not so well understood as it was in a later time. THE TUNNELS OF CHICAGO Notwithstanding the fact that Chicago stands on a plain of nearly two hundred square miles in extent, it is remarkable that the earth beneath and its adjoining waters in lake and river are honeycombed with tunnels. The people of Chicago have become the greatest tunnel builders perhaps of any community on the face of the earth. The substratum, composed principally of blue clay to a great depth, renders this kind of construction easy, as compared with like constructions in localities largely underlaid with rocky formations, though at greater depths rock is met with abundantly. Indeed so expert have become our tunnel builders that the construction of a tunnel for any purpose,-for the conveyance of a water supply from distant points in the lake, for a passage under the river, or for freight carrying under the streets, -scarcely attracts more than passing attention. It is a curious fact, which illustrates what is here said, that the Illinois Tunnel Company, described elsewhere in this work, excavated a network of tunnels some thirty feet under the surface of the streets, of which the public were scarcely aware until it began to be operated in 1905. The facility with which tunnels are built recalls a story of the Civil War related in the "Memoirs of General Sherman," and quoted by Grant in his "Memoirs," "The rebel cavalry lurking in his rear to burn bridges and obstruct his communications had become so disgusted at hearing trains go whistling by within a few hours after a bridge had been burned, that they proposed to try blowing up some of the tunnels. One of them said, 'No use, boys, Old Sherman carries duplicate tunnels with him, and will replace them as fast as you can blow them up; better save your powder.'" We shall here give separate accounts of the water tunnels, the tunnels under the river, and those under the streets. THE WATER TUNNELS OF CHICAGO Far beneath the surface of Chicago's streets there are flowing rivers of water conducted through tunnels and supplied directly from the boundless flood of Lake Michigan. The volume of the waters thus flowing is almost beyond comprehension, but it is all required for the needs of the great population of the city. If it were possible that all knowledge of the tunnel system by which the waters of Lake Michigan are conveyed from the inlets to the various pumping stations were lost, and no sketch plans existed from which they could be located, it would |