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BREAKING GROUND.
THE
GREAT LAKE TUNNEL AT
CHICAGO.
ONE of the greatest works of the
kind ever under taken has just been commenced in the city of Chicago, under the
auspices of the authorities, by Messrs. DULL, & GOWAN, contractors: namely, the
construction of a Tunnel under Lake Michigan, two miles in length, by which to
supply the city with pure and wholesome water. Our correspondent gives us the
following account of the enterprise :
" Chicago is situated on a low
and nearly level prairie, being but a few feet above the level of the Lake, so
that even the earliest settlers found wells to be impracticable, from the fact
that the surface water could not be avoided, while the river is nothing but a
sluggish canal, the current of which sways up or down stream, as the
wind outside the harbor happens
to send the waters of the Lake inshore or out. A great deal of the sewerage of
the city is also discharged into the river, together with all the refuse of the
slaughter 1 houses and distilleries, so that it has become a vast and serious
nuisance.
" The water with which the people
are at present supplied is taken from an artificial basin close in-
shore, about three-fourths of a
mile north of the mouth of the river, and by means of immense pumps, which are
worked by two engines of two and five hundred horse-power.
"When the wind prevails from the
south or southwest the current of the river setting outward is carried up the
shore and is more or less deposit-
ed in the basin, causing the
water to partake largely of the disagreeable flavor arising from a combination
of ingredients neither agreeable to the taste nor smell, and at times rendering
it altogether unfit for use.
"By the construction of this
Tunnel it is proposed to take the water from a distance of two miles from the
shore of the Lake, thereby insur-.
IN TRANSIT.
WATER-WORKS BUILDING.
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