by 
Schonberg
ANSWERS: 1
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Howdy, Water goes through the tunnel. Ellis Chesbrough 1813–1886 Engineer By 1855, Chicago was a growing city encountering problems with its watersupply and sewage disposal. In response to cholera and dysentery epidemics, the Chicago Board of Sewage Commissioners selected Ellis Sylvester Chesbrough, designer of Boston’s water distribution system, to solve Chicago’s public health crisis. Chesbrough, a self-trained engineer, designed and oversaw construction of the nation’s first comprehensive sewer system, allowing the city to continue to grow. Chesbrough’s planned system relied on gravity flow, but downtown streets were too low to drain into the river. Large brick sewers were built above the existing ground level and then covered, raising the city’s street level as much as ten feet. The raising of Chicago in the 1850s and 1860s drew world-wide interest. Sewage still flowed into the lake, however, and in 1864, Chesbrough began a two mile tunnel, 60 feet under the lake, out to a new intake crib. The dramatic scheme brought the city pure, clean water and was hailed as an engineering wonder.
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