The Eastland Disaster

The Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, seen here opening in 1900, reversed the flow of the Chicago River. Chicago's did this to save its population which had been using the river as an open sewer. By 1886, the flow of human waste seeped a into the water cribs a mile into Lake Michigan, poisoning the city and killing thousands. Construction on the canal started three years later

Chicago founded where it did because of one of the city's most crucial resources, the Chicago River. Especially in the first hundred years, the river acted as a crucial transportation and shipping lane, allowing the city to grow to new sizes. The first permanent settler, Jean Baptiste DuSable, a Haitian fur trader, set his trading post along the well traveled waterway. Fort Dearborn, built 1806, was put across the river from DuSable's first post, protecting the growing population dependent on the water for trade and sustenance. Even though Chicago has a long history of neglecting this resource to its own peril, the river has always had a central importance to the city.

Photograph of the Eastland capsized at its dock. Visible in the background is the Reid Murdoch Building, built 1914, which still stands today and marks the spot where the disaster happened.

The Chicago River is also the location of a maritime tragedy. On July 24, 1915, the S.S. Eastland loaded for an early morning excursion of local employees and their families. Even as the ship was boarding, the notoriously top-heavy Eastland began to sway back and forth in the water. Not wanting to miss the event, passengers kept boarding the boat. By the time those on board realized the danger of the situation, it was too late. Overloaded and overweight, the ship rolled onto its side at its dock, flooding with water and trapping man on board. In the end, 844 of the estimated 2,500 passengers and crew on board perished in the Chicago River.